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The  HANDBOOK 


■  ^ 

The  INTERCHURCH 
WORLD  MOVEMENT 
of  NORTH  AMERICA 


The  HANDBOOK 


A  SOURCE  BOOK  OF 
INFORMATION  FOR 
SPEAKERS  AND  MEMBERS 
OF  THE  ORGANIZATION 


Published  September  1 ,  1919 


INTERCHURCH  WORLD  MOVEMENT 
OF  NORTH  AMERICA 
1 1 1  FIFTH  AVENUE  NEW  YORK  CITY 


I 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


THIS  HANDBOOK  has  been  somewhat  hurriedly 
prepared  in  order  that  a  simple  statement  of  the 
organization  and  plans  of  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement  may  be  immediately  available  for  the  use  of 
speakers.  It  does  not  pretend  to  do  more  than  give  the 
main  facts  of  the  Movement.  Its  scope  has  been  deliber¬ 
ately  limited  to  a  statement  of  the  facts.  Matter  of  an 
inspirational  character  has  been  avoided. 

The  Movement  progresses  so  fast  that  the  present  hand¬ 
book  will  of  necessity  be  partially  out  of  date  almost 
before  it  is  published.  It  is  therefore  intended  only  as  a 
temporary  manual  of  information  for  speakers  and  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  organization.  Its  function  is  rather  as  a 
nucleus  around  which  facts  concerning  the  future 
development  of  the  Movement  may  be  assembled.  Later 
it  is  hoped  that  the  handbook  may  be  supplemented  by  a 
loose-leaf  book  so  that  it  may  be  conveniently  altered  and 
brought  up  to  date  from  time  to  time,  from  week  to  week. 

The  Handbook  is  not  intended  to  take  the  place  of  the 
various  pamphlets  published  by  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement,  but  should  be  read  in  conjunction  with  these. 
A  list  of  the  pamphlets  already  published  will  be  found 
as  an  appendix  at  the  end  of  this  book. 

In  the  following  pages  the  more  extended  treatment  is 
given  to  those  phases  of  the  Movement  which  are  now 
most  important.  Likewise  the  work  of  some  depart¬ 
ments  which  are  only  in  process  of  organization  is  men¬ 
tioned  very  briefly  or  not  at  all. 

3 


INTRODUCTION 


Page 

The  World  and  the  Churches  . * .  9 

Responsibility  in  Terms  of  Population .  9 

The  Problem  in  Christian  America .  10 

Are  the  Churches  Equal  to  Their  Task .  11 

A  Christian  Alliance  .  12 

The  Single  Vision  .  12 

The  Handbook  .  13 

PART  I. 

The  Call  and  the  Response. 

The  Committee  of  Twenty .  14 

Endorsements  .  15 

Report  of  the  Committee  of  Twenty .  18 

I.  Purpose  .  19 

II.  Interests  Included  .  19 

III.  Methods  .  19 

IV.  Immediate  Steps .  22 

Early  Steps  .  23 

I.  The  General  Committee  .  23 

II.  Regional  Conferences  .  23 

III.  The  Pittsburg  Meeting  .  23 

IV.  The  Cleveland  Conference  .  24 

Findings  of  the  Cleveland  Conference.  .  .  25 

4 


Page 

Constituency  of  the  Cleveland  Conference  28 

Personnel  of  Delegates .  29 

The  Interchurch  Movement  Defined  .  29 

What  It  Is  Not .  29 

What  It  Is  .  30 

Common  Tasks  of  the  Churches  .  31 

Recapitulation  .  32 

Positive  .  32 

Negative  .  32 

Organization  .  33 

The  General  Committee  .  33 

Executive  Committee  .  34 

General  Associate  Secretaries .  34 

Canadian  Council  .  35 

Departments  .* .  35 

Groups  .  35 

I.  Objective  Group  .  35 

II.  Educational  Group  .  36 

III.  Promulgation  Group  .  36 

IV.  Administration  Group  .  .  .• .  37 

Relations  With  Other  Bodies  . .  37 

The  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement  .  39 

The  Missionary  Education  Movement .  39 

The  Federal  Council  of  Churches .  40 


5 


PART  II. 

Page 

The  Facts  and  the  Means. 

I.  The  Facts  .  42 

The  Survey  Department  .  43 

Why  Have  Survey? .  43 

Organization  .  46 

Reason  For  This  Classification .  46 

Home  Missions  Division  .  46 

General  Principles  . .  .  46 

Method  .  47 

The  City  Survey  .  48 

I.  Principles  . 49 

II.  Scope  . .  49 

III.  Method .  49 

The  Rural  Survey . .» .  50 

I.  Three  Principles  .  50 

II.  Organization  .  51 

American  Educational  Division  .  52 

American  Religious  Education  Division .  52 

American  Ministerial  Support .  54 

American  Hospitals  .  54 

I.  Health  .  55 

II.  Conservation  . . ..' .  56 

III.  Preservation  .  56 

6 


Page 

American  Industrial  Relations  Division  .  56 

Foreign  Division  . 57 

Scope  and  Plans  . . .  57 

Editorial,  Research  and  Statistical  Divisions .  59 

II.  The  Means  .  60 

A  United  Budget  . 60 

Points  on  the  Budget  .  60 

Finances  of  The  Interchurch  World  Movement  62 

A  United  Campaign  of  Publicity  and  Education .  62 

The  Field  Campaign  .  62 

•  The  Field  Department  . * .  63 

I.  Relation  With  Other  Departments..  63 

II.  Organization  .  64 

III.  General  Publicity  .  65 

Literature  Department  .  66 

Publicity  Department  .  66 

Periodical  Department  .  68 

A  United  Financial  Drive  .  68 

Points  to  Notice  .  69 

A  Few  Figures  .  69 

A  United  Program  of  Work .  71 

Aids  to  Missions  .  72 

Spiritual  Resources  .  73 

Stewardship  .  75 

Life  Work  . 76 

Appendix  . 78,  79  and  80 


7 


INTRODUCTION 

The  World  and  the  Churches 

THE  INTERCHURCH  World  Movement  of  North 
America  has  come  into  being  as  a  direct  consequence 
of  certain  facts  in  the  world  today.  Most  of  these 
facts  are  not  new,  but  all  of  them  have  received  a  new 
significance  as  a  result  of  the  world  war.  The  war  and 
its  aftermath  represent  a  challenge  to  Christianity. 

Responsibility  In  Terms 
Of  Population 

Here  are  a  few  of  the  facts.  The  earth  is  estimated  to 
have  a  population  of  1,640,000,000.  Of  this  population, 
586,000,000,  or  36  per  cent.,  is  at  least  nominally  Chris¬ 
tian.  There  are  more  than  a  billion  people  in  the  world, 
two-thirds  of  the  population  of  the  earth,  to  whom  the 
truths  of  Christianity  have  not  been  brought  home. 

Europe  is  left  distraught  by  the  war.  The  sufferings  of 
France,  Belgium,  Serbia  and  Russia  alone  make  almost 
incredible  demands  upon  the  Christian  charity  of  the 
world,  and  Europe  generally  is  ill  prepared  to  make 
large  contributions  towards  aggressive  Christian  work. 

Africa  has  a  population  of  130,000,000.  South  Africa, 
with  its  10,000,000  population,  is  Europeanized  and  mainly 
Chi  istian.  North  Africa,  with  40,000,000  inhabitants,  is 

9 


largely  Mohammedan.  Central  Africa,  with  80,000,000 
inhabitants,  is  pagan.  The  Mohammedans  of  the  North 
are  conducting  a  persistent  propaganda  to  win  the 
pagans  of  Central  Africa  to  Mohammedanism,  and  with 
some  success.  It  is  reported  that  for  every  33  natives 
who  become  Christians,  100  become  Mohammedans.  The 
African  field  of  missionary  work  contains  120,000,000 
people. 

Asia  contains  nearly  half  of  the  population  of  the  world, 
approximately  800,000,000.  Of  this  vast  population  only 
a  few  paltry  millions  are  Christian.  .  The  following 
figures  are  compiled  from  the  “ World’s  Statistics  of 
Christian  Missions,”  published  in  1916: 

Population  vs.  Missionary  Returns 

India’s  population  is  315,000,000.  Evangelical  missions  have  won 

approximately  1,500,000. 

China’s  population  is  close  to  Evangelical  missions  have  won 
400,000,000  (roughly  the  437,000  (about), 

population  of  the  globe). 

Japan’s  population  is  54,000,000.  Evangelical  missions  have  won 

approximately  116,000. 

The  Problems  In 
Christian  America 

America  is  a  Christian  country.  Has  it  then  no  need  of 
home  missions?  Here  are  some  of  our  problems: 

There  are  unchurched  areas,  and  areas  in  which  there 
is  urgent  need  of  redistribution  of  evangelical  effort. 
There  are,  for  instance,  suburban  communities  springing 
up  which  have  no  churches,  and  there  are  other  com¬ 
munities  declining  which  have  too  many. 

10 


The  racial  problems  of  the  Old  World  are  as  acute  here 
as  in  Europe.  There  are,  for  instance,  between  three 
and  four  million  Poles  in  this  country  (30  per  cent,  of 
them  illiterate) ,  and  one  million  Czecho-Slovaks ;  there 
are  more  Italians  in  New  York  City  than  there  are  in 
Rome,  and  more  Jews  than  there  are  in  Jerusalem;  there 
are  300,000  Indians  and  400,000  Mexicans  in  our  popula¬ 
tion ;  there  are  special  problems  presented  by  the  native 
Alaskan  as  well  as  by  the  populations  of  Hawaii  and  the 
West  Indies;  there  is  the  Negro  question;  there  are  ques¬ 
tions  appertaining  to  various  itinerant  groups  who  have 
few  opportunities  for  hearing  the  word  of  God;  there  are 
a  dozen  other  questions  all  pressing  for  an  answer. 

These  are  the  facts  that  the  churches  have  to  face  today. 
They  are  not  new,  but  the  war  has  made  them  more 
urgent.  What  of  the  fitness  of  the  churches  to  grapple 
with  them? 

Are  the  Churches 
Equal  to  Their  Task? 

It  ought  to  be  frankly  admitted  that  in  the  past  the 
denominations  have  not  always  been  as  active,  as 
forward-looking,  as  truly  evangelistic  as  they  might  have 
been.  But  recently  there  has  been  the  stirring  through 
the  world  of  a  spirit  of  revival.  Under  the  stress  of 
conditions  brought  about  by  the  war  various  denomina¬ 
tional  movements  of  a  forward  character  have  sprung 
into  being  during  the  past  few  months,  some  with  pro¬ 
grams  so  vast  as  to  exceed  those  of  all  the  other  de¬ 
nominations  together  before  the  war. 


11 


But  the  task  is  too  big  for  any  single  denomination.  It 
requires  the  united  efforts  of  all  the  churches.  It  is  the 
realization  of  this  fact  which  has  brought  into  being  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement  of  North  America. 

Members  of  the  American  evangelical  churches  will 
realize  with  proud,  yet  humble,  thankfulness  that  the 
force  of  material  circumstances  alone  thrusts  upon  them 
the  privilege  of  taking  the  initiative  in  this  gigantic  task. 
They  will  humbly  pray  that  the  spiritual  fervor  with 
which  they  set  about  it  may  prove  them  not  unworthy 
stewards  of  those  material  blessings  which  they  so 
abundantly  enjoy. 

A  Christian  Alliance 

The  Interchurch  World  Movement  has  for  its  object 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  to  provide  the  means  by 
which  the  various  evangelical  churches  of  North  America 
may  come  together  for  cooperation  in  dealing  with  the 
problems  which  confront  the  world  today.  Its  aim  is  to 
serve  the  various  churches  by  so  coordinating  their 
activities  that  waste  effort  may  be  eliminated  and  that 
the  full  force  of  their  energies  may  be  concentrated  on 
the  service  they  are  called  upon  to  render  to  humanity. 
It  is  a  plan  of  thorough-going  cooperation  among  the 
churches  of  North  America  in  their  entire  educational 
and  missionary  program  at  home  and  abroad. 

The  Single  Vision 

The  Interchurch  World  Movement  is  designed  to  get  and 
to  give  to  the  church  one  vision  of  the  whole  task  con¬ 
fronting  it.  In  other  words,  to  mobilize  the  whole  church 
for  service  to  the  whole  world,  and  to  coordinate  its 

12 


present  divided  and  diversified  activities.  The  Inter¬ 
church  World  Movement  seeks  to  coordinate  the  forces 
of  Christianity  on  this  continent  for  their  campaign  to 
win  the  world  for  Christ.  It  affords  to  all  the  churches 
the  opportunity  for  the  reassertion  of  the  place  of  the 
Christian  church  in  the  world.  It  presents  to  the  indi¬ 
vidual  the  opportunity  to  help  make  the  church  what  we 
would  wish  it  to  be:  the  greatest  constructive  force  in 
the  new  worid  which  is  in  process  of  building. 

The  Handbook 

The  pages  that  follow  contain  in  the  briefest  possible 
compass,  and  in  form  intended  to  be  convenient  for  the 
use  of  speakers  and  members  of  the  organization,  an 
account  of  the  aims  and  origin  of  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement  of  North  America  and  a  statement  of  what 
has  been  accomplished  up  to  the  present  time.  The  facts 
seem  to  group  themselves  naturally  under  two  main 
heads,  namely:  “The  Call  and  the  Response/’  and  “The 
Facts  and  the  Means.” 


13 


PART  I. 

The  Call  and  the  Response 

THE  first  step  toward  the  organization  of  the  Inter¬ 
church  World  Movement  was  taken  by  the  Execu¬ 
tive  Committee  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  (South), 
which  issued  a  call  from  its  headquarters  in  Nashville, 
in  response  to  which  135  representatives  of  home  and 
foreign  mission  boards  of  North  America  met  on  De¬ 
cember  17,  1918,  in  New  York  city. 

At  about  the  same  time  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  called  a  meeting  at  Atlantic  City,  attended  by 
ninety  persons. 

At  both  these  meetings  there  was  unanimous  agreement 
that  the  time  had  come  for  the  working  bodies  of  the 
several  denominations  so  to  relate  their  activities  as  to 
present  a  united  front  to  the  world.  The  objects  to  be 
achieved  would  be  (1)  increased  efficiency,  (2)  increased 
influence,  (3)  increased  economy. 

The  Committee  of  Twenty 

At  the  New  York  meeting  a  committee  of  twenty  was 
appointed  to  outline  a  plan  for  the  closer  cooperation  of 
churches  and  to  present  it  to  various  denominational 
boards  that  would  meet  in  January. 


14 


Endorsements 


A  statement  was  drawn  up  by  the  committee  which  was 
subsequently  endorsed  by  more  than  sixty  denominational 
boards  and  interdenominational  agencies.  The  Inter¬ 
church  World  Movement  of  North  America  was  launched. 

Note — Boards  and  organizations  which  have  endorsed  the 
Movement:* 

American  Tract  Society 

Committee  on  Cooperation  in  Latin  America 
Council  of  Church  Boards  of  Education 
Council  of  Women  for  Home  Missions 
Federation  of  Women’s  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  of 
North  America 

Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America 
Foreign  Missions  Conference  of  North  America 
Home  Missions  Council 
International  Missionary  Union 
Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement 
Missionary  Education  Movement 

Sunday  School  Council  of  Evangelical  Denominations  in 
the  United  States  and  Canada 
International  Sunday  School  Association 
International  Committee  of  Young  Men’s  Christian  Asso¬ 
ciations 

United  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor 
World  Christian  Endeavor  Union 
World’s  Sunday  School  Association 
American  Missionary  Association 
American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society 

*  This  list  is  corrected  up  to  July  1G,  1919. 

15 


American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society 
Northern  Baptist  Convention 

The  National  Baptist.  Convention  (Colored  Baptists  in 
the  U.  S.) 

American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions 
Commission  on  Missions  of  the  National  Council  of  Con- 
gregationalists 

Congregational  Home  Mission  Society 
Congregational  Church  Building  Society 
Congregational  Sunday  School  Extension  Society 
Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Christian  Church 
Christian  Woman’s  Board  of  Missions 
Foreign  Christian  Missionary  Society  (Disciples  of  Christ) 
American  Christian  Missionary  Society  (Disciples  of 
Christ) 

Board  of  Church  Extension  of  the  American  Christian 
Missionary  Society 
Board  of  Education  of  the  Disciples 

Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Unity  of  Dis. 
ciples 

Board  of  Ministerial  Relief  of  the  Disciples 
National  Benevolent  Association  (Disciples  of  Christ) 
Domestic  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Protest¬ 
ant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States 
American  Friends  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Five  Years’  Meeting  of  the 
Friends  in  America 

Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Five  Years’  Meeting  of 
the  Friends  in  America 

Joint  Centenary  Commission  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  (North  and  South) 

Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church 


16 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Methodist  Protest¬ 
ant  Church 

Society  of  the  United  Brethren  for  Propagating  the 
Gospel  Among  the  Heathen  (Moravian  Church  in 
America) 

General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America  (North) 

Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  United  States  of  America  (North) 

Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  United  States  of  America  (North) 

Woman’s  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  (North) 

Woman’s  Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  (North) 

General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States  (South) 

Foreign  Missions  Board  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  United  States  (South) 

Home  Missions  Board  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States  (South) 

Committee  of  Christian  Education  and  Ministerial  Relief 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States 
(South) 

Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church 

Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church 

Freedman’s  Board  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church 

Convocation  Committee  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church 

General  Synod  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  the  United 
States 

17 


I 


Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  the 
United  States 

Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  the 
United  States 

United  Missionary  and  Stewardship  Committee  of  the 
Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
America 

Woman’s  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  Reformed  Church  in 
America 

Woman’s  Board  of  Domestic  Missions,  Reformed  Church 
in  America 

General  Board  of  Administration  of  the  United  Brethren 
in  Christ 

Executive  Committee  of  Home  Missions  of  the  United 
Brethren  in  Christ 

Home  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  United 
Evangelical  Church 

Board  of  Church  Extension  of  the  United  Evangelical 
Church 

Report  of  the  Committee  of  Twenty 

( The  Committee  of  Twenty  prepared 
and  presented  the  following  report.) 

On  December  17,  1918,  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  repre¬ 
sentatives  of  the  home  and  foreign  mission  boards  and 
allied  agencies  met  in  conference  in  New  York  city  at 
the  call  of  the  Foreign  Missions  Board  of  the  Presby¬ 
terian  Church  in  the  United  States  (South)  to  consider 
the  advisability  and  feasibility  of  a  united  campaign.  The 
entire  day  was  spent  in  the  consideration  of  this  question 
and  it  was  unanimously  agreed  that  the  time  was  ripe  for 
sach  a  campaign. 


18 


A  committee  of  twenty  was  appointed  to  outline  a  plan  to 
be  submitted  to  the  Foreign  Missions  Conference  of  North 
America,  the  Home  Missions  Council,  the  Council  of 
Church  Boards  of  Education,  the  Sunday  School  Council, 
the  Federation  of  Women’s  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions 
and  the  Council  of  Women  for  Home  Missions. 

This  committee  presented  the  following  report  to  these 
agencies  for  approval  and  favorable  recommendation  to 
their  constituent  bodies :  That  there  be  organized 

The  Interchurch  World  Movement  of  North 

America 

I.  Purpose 

To  present  a  unified  program  of  Christian  service  and 
to  unite  the  Evangelical  churches  of  North  America  in 
the  performance  of  their  common  task,  thus  making 
available  the  values  of  spiritual  power  which  come  from 
unity  and  coordinated  Christian  effort  and  meeting  the 
unique  opportunities  of  the  new  era. 

II.  Interests  Included 

While  primarily  a  home  and  foreign  missionary  move¬ 
ment,  the  Movement  is  to  be  broad  enough  to  cover  all 
those  interests  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  outside 
of  the  local  church  budget  which  are  naturally  related 
to  the  missionary  enterprise  through  national  agencies— 
denominational  or  interdenominational. 

III.  Methods 

1.  Organization 
(1)  National 

a.  General  committee  of  approximately  one 
hundred. 


19 


b.  Executive  committee  not  to  exceed  fifteen. 

c.  Canadian  council. 

(The  questions  involved  in  the  movement 
that  are  peculiar  to  the  Dominion  of  Can¬ 
ada  should  be  referred  to  the  Canadian 
council.) 

(2)  State  and  local 

The  organization  throughout  the  country  in 
each  state  and  local  community  of  all  the 
Christian  forces  into  some  form  of  inter¬ 
church  committee  or  federation. 

2.  Survey 

A  thorough,  united  survey  of  the  home  and  for¬ 
eign  fields  of  the  world  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
accurate  and  complete  data  as  to  what  ought  to  be 
done  by  the  combined  churches  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  hour,  and  of  at  least  the  next  five  years. 

3.  Education  and  Publicity 

A  thoroughgoing  educational  and  publicity  cam¬ 
paign  to  carry  the  facts  of  the  survey  to  the  entire 
evangelical  church  constituency  in  America  and  to 
every  mission  station  throughout  the  world  where 
the  churches  of  North  America  are  at  work. 

4.  Field  Campaign 

A  field  camaign  for  the  purpose  of  arousing  the 
church  to  a  realization  of  the  urgency  of  united 
effort  in  meeting  the  needs  of  the  community,  the 
nation  and  the  world,  and  of  inspiring  and  organiz- 

•  ing  the  Christian  forces  to  undertake  an  adequate 

20 


world  program.  This  field  campaign  to  include  a 
series  of  regional  conferences  to  be  begun  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment,  followed  by  conventions 
and  training  conferences  throughout  the  country, 
to  acquaint  the  churches  with  the  message,  plans 
and  methods  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  of 
North  America;  to  appeal  for  the  resources  of 
spiritual  power,  life  and  money  called  for  by  the 
survey  and  to  organize  all  the  forces  for  the  carry¬ 
ing  out  of  their  full  part  of  the  program. 


5.  United  Budget  and  Treasury 

A  united  budget  which  shall  constitute  the  finan¬ 
cial  objective  and  which  shall  be  presented  to  the 
constituency  of  the  cooperating  agencies  together 
with  the  educational  and  spiritual  objectives  of 
the  Movement.  It  is  clearly  understood  that  the 
united  movement  shall  not  displace  or  interfere  with 
the  autonomy  and  responsibility  of  administration 
of  the  cooperating  agencies,  and  it  is  urged  that  all 
funds  should  be  sent  as  far  as  possible  directly  to 
the  treasurers  of  such  agencies  from  their  natural 
constituencies,  but  in  view  of  the  necessity  of  pro¬ 
vision  for  receiving  and  distributing  any  funds  that 
might  be  contributed  to  it  without  being  sent 
.  through  denominational  treasurers,  a  central  treas¬ 
ury  be  established  to  which  funds  given  for  the 
united  budget,  but  contributed  through  ordinary 
church  channels,  may  be  reported  by  the  cooperat¬ 
ing  agencies,  and  through  which  donors  who  so 
elect  may  contribute  directly  to  the  united  budget. 


21 


The  functions  of  this  central  treasury  shall  not  be 
administrative  but  to  assemble  and  report  the 
financial  facts  connected  with  the  campaign,  dis¬ 
burse  funds  for  the  common  expenses  of  the  campaign, 
and  serve  as  a  clearing  house  between  the  cooper¬ 
ating  agencies  in  order  to  insure  to  each  its  pro 
rata  share  of  the  funds  secured,  as  agreed  on  in 
advance  by  its  percentage  in  the  united  budget. 

6.  Financial  Drive 

A  united  financial  campaign  in  the  spring  of 
1920,  or  whenever,  in  the  judgment  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Movement,  the  churches  are  sufficiently  pre¬ 
pared,  to  secure  the  funds  shown  by  the  survey  to 
be  needed  to  carry  through  the  world  program  on 
an  efficiency  basis. 

7.  Conservation  and  Extension 

A  conservation  and  extension  program  to  be 
worked  out  as  the  Movement  progresses  to  insure 
the  sustained  cooperation  of  all  the  forces  involved. 

3.  Expenses  of  the  Movement 

The  Movement  to  be  financed  out  of  funds  secured 
and  not  by  direct  assessment  upon  the  participating 
bodies. 

IV.  Immediate  Steps 

If  and  when  the  foregoing  proposals  shall  have  been 
recommended  for  submission  by  the  Foreign  Missions 
Conference  and  Home  Missions  Council  to  their  partici¬ 
pating  bodies,  the  Committee  of  Twenty  shall  proceed  to 
complete  the  organization  by  choosing  members  of  the 
General  Committee  who  shall  act  with  full  authority  to 
carry  out  the  foregoing  proposals. 


22 


The  Committee  of  Twenty 


S.  Earl  Taylor,  Chairman 
William  B.  Millar,  Secretary 


(R.  P.  Mackay,  Alternate) 
Fred  P.  Haggard 
F.  H.  Knubel 
Bishop  William  Lawrence 


Mrs.  Fred  S.  Bennett 
James  E.  Clarke 
Miss  Mabel  Cratty 
D.  D.  Forsyth 
William  H.  Foulkes 
Principal  Alfred  Gandier 


John  R.  Mott 
Cornelius  H.  Patton 
Mrs.  Henry  W.  Peabody 
Fred  B.  Smith 
Robert  E.  Speer 
James  M.  Speers 
James  I.  Vance 


(Charles  H.  Pratt,  Alternate) 
Charles  R.  Watson 
Charles  L.  White 


(Bishop  A.  S.  Lloyd,  Alternate)  J.  Campbell  White 

Early  Steps 

I.  The  General  Committee 

The  various  organizations  which  endorsed  the  Movement 
were  requested  to  nominate  the  members  of  the  General 
Committee.  The  committee  held  its  first  meeting  in 
January,  1919,  to  consider  plans  of  procedure  and  to  set 
up  a  working  organization. 

II.  Regional  Conferences 

To  test  the  sentiment  of  all  sections  of  the  country  some 
17  regional  conferences  were  held  in  influential  centers 
as  widely  separated  as  Boston,  Chicago,  San  Francisco, 
Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  San  Antonio,  El  Paso,  Portland 
and  Seattle.  These  conferences  went  very  fully  into  the 
plan  and  purposes  of  the  Movement  and  much  that  was 
helpful  in  the  way  of  criticism  and  constructive  sug¬ 
gestion  was  called  forth. 

III.  The  Pittsburgh  Meeting 

Late  in  April  about  125  leading  ministers  were  assembled 
at  Pittsburgh  from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  consider 
the  entire  conception  of  the  Movement,  which  was  en¬ 
thusiastically  and  unanimously  approved  by  the  meeting. 


23 


IV.  The  Cleveland  Interboard  Conference, 

April  30-May  1 

The  Cleveland  Interboard  Conference,  largely  representa¬ 
tive  of  the  official  denominational  boards  and  societies, 
may  be  said  to  have  marked  the  culmination  of  the 
preparatory  stages  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement. 
Here  the  idea  of  the  Movement  was  thoroughly  threshed 
out;  every  angle  was  considered;  questions  were  asked 
and  freely  answered.  It  was  a  memorable  gathering  of 
more  than  500  men  and  women  who  were  most  closely 
and  officially  connected  with  the  home  and  foreign  mis¬ 
sionary  work  and  benevolent  boards  of  the  evangelical 
churches  of  North  America. 

A  writer  in  the  June  Review  of  Reviews  characterized 
the  meeting  as  follows:  “One  who  has  attended  many 
conventions,  religious,  social,  academic  and  political  was 
particularly  impressed  with  the  purpose  to  conform  to 
three  conditions:  To  saturate  all  proceedings  with  pro¬ 
found  spirituality;  to  eliminate  all  sentimentality  in 
deference  to  ‘sweet  reasonableness’;  to  dodge  no  issue 
which  has  been  raised  in  times  past  and  frankly  to  meet 
every  criticism  which  has  been  brought  against  the 
Christian  church.  No  man  will  ever  again  dare  say  the 
Christian  church  ‘sidesteps’  any  problem  of  the  time.” 

The  conviction  at  Cleveland  was  unanimous  that  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement  was  providential,  necessary 
and  imperative.  This  conviction  was  expressed  in  the 
findings  of  the  meeting,  which  were  brought  in  by  a 
special  and  thoroughly  representative  committee,  and 
were  unanimously  adopted. 


24 


The  Findings  of  the  Cleveland  Conference  constitute  one 
of  the  best  short  statements  made  of  the  aims  of  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement  of  North  America.  We 
reproduce  them  herewith.  They  are  also  published  in 
pamphlet  form  and  can  be  obtained  in  any  number  for 
free  distribution  at  222  Fourth  Avenue.  New  York  City. 

Findings  of  the  Cleveland  Conference 
We  are  impressed  with  the  providential  character  of  the 
steps  and  events  leading  up  to  this  meeting  at  Cleveland. 
We  reverently  recognize  what  we  believe  to  be  the  lead¬ 
ings  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  this  Interchurch  World 
Movement. 

We  believe  that  the  magnitude  and  the  urgency  of  the 
present  duty  of  the  Christian  church  to  carry  the  gospel 
to  all  men  and  to  all  life  call  for  the  greatest  possible 
measure  of  effective  cooperation  among  the  churches. 

We  are  convinced  that  the  spirit  of  life  and  of  common 
service  which  is  now  abroad  among  the  churches  needs 
for  its  expression  and  for  its  use  such  an  instrumentality 
as  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  provides. 

We  welcome  this  Movement  as  providentially  presenting 
to  the  evangelical  churches  and  organizations  of  America 
an  unprecedented  opportunity  for  cooperative  effort  to 
serve  the  whole  world  unitedly,  effectively  and  in  the 
spirit  of  Christ. 

It  seems  to  us  to  be  of  extraordinary  significance  that 
it  should  come  into  being  at  a  time  when  the  cataclysm 
of  the  world  war  has  prepared  the  minds  of  men  for 
religious  impressions,  thrown  down  the  barriers  to  mis¬ 
sionary  advance  and  created  an  atmosphere  favorable  to 


25 


the  review  and  readjustment  of  industrial,  social  and 
international  relations,  in  accordance  with  the  teachings 
of  Christ. 

We  commend  the  proposed  method  of  basing  the  pro¬ 
gram  of  action  upon  facts  to  be  ascertained  by  means  of 
comprehensive  and  careful  surveys.  We  understand  that 
these  surveys  will  not  only  cover  those  fields  commonly 
classified  as  “missionary”  but  will  include  all  evangelistic 
effort;  the  religious  nurture  of  children;  the  enlistment 
and  special  preparation  of  youth  for  life  service;  the 
educational  system  of  the  churches  at  home  and  abroad 
— general,  theological,  vocational  and  professional ;  phil¬ 
anthropic  institutions — hospitals,  orphanages,  asylums 
and  child-welfare  agencies;  the  means  for  the  support 
of  the  ministry  in  retirement,  as  well  as  in  active  service; 
and  the  contribution  of  the  church  to  the  solution  of  the 
definite  social  and  industrial  problems  of  the  new  day  of 
readjustment  and  reconstruction. 

We  believe  that  upon  such  a  foundation  of  established 
fact  the  churches  and  organizations  with  which  we  are 
severally  connected  can  unitedly  appeal  to  the  evangelical 
constituency  of  America  in  support  of  a  program  large 
enough  and  wise  enough  and  practical  enough  to  com¬ 
mand  the  prayers,  the  money  and  the  dedication  of  life 
sufficient  to  man,  equip  and  spiritually  energize  the 
Movement,  whose  aim  is  nothing  less  than  to  make  the 
Divine  Christ  ruler  of  the  hearts  and  lives  of  all  men. 

We  are  persuaded  that  close  and  trustful  cooperation  in 
such  a  movement  will  weaken  no  true  and  worthy 
loyalty  to  denominational  duty  but  will  require  the  fullest 
contribution  which  each  body  can  make  in  the  line  of 
its  own  distinctive  responsibilty. 

26 


To  meet  the  natural  and  proper  inquiries  of  our  churches 
as  to  the  character  and  purpose  of  the  Movement  we 
deem  it  wise  to  state:  that  the  Interchurch  World  Move¬ 
ment  is  a  cooperative  effort  of  the  missionary,  educa¬ 
tional  and  other  benevolent  agencies  of  the  evangelical 
churches  of  the  United  States  and  Canada  to  secure  the 
necessary  resources  of  men  and  money  and  power  re¬ 
quired  for  these  tasks;  that  it  is  a  spiritual  undertaking 
of  survey,  education,  and  inspiration;  that  it  is  an  in¬ 
strumentality  of  cooperation  and  coordination  of  adminis¬ 
trative  agencies,  designed  to  serve  and  not  to  supplant 
them. 

It  is  this  positive  character  of  the  Movement  that  we 
desire  to  exalt.  At  the  same  time,  to  prevent  misappre¬ 
hension,  we  affirm  our  definite  understanding  that  this 
is  not  an  ecclesiastical  movement  nor  an  effort  at  organic 
church  union.  It  will  not  disturb  the  autonomy  or  inter¬ 
fere  with  the  administration  of  any  church  or  board. 
Neither  will  it  undertake  to  administer  or  to  expend 
funds  for  any  purpose  beyond  its  own  proper  administra¬ 
tive  expenses.  It  has  a  definite  and  temporary  mission. 
It  will  not  duplicate  or  conflict  with  other  denominational 
agencies.  It  does  not  assume  responsibility  or  authority 
in  questions  of  church  or  missionary  policy,  recognizing 
that  these  belong  to  the  cooperating  agencies  and  organi¬ 
zations.  And  we  disclaim  all  statements,  by  whomsoever 
made,  contrary  to  this  declaration  of  principles. 


We  believe  that  the  churches  need  not  fear  to  trust  to  the 
fullest  extent  such  a  cooperative  effort  created  by  their 
own  agencies  and  responsible  to  their  control. 


27 


In  this  endeavor  unitedly  to  survey  their  common  task 
and  together  to  enlist  the  resources  for  its  accomplish¬ 
ment,  we  see  an  opportunity  for  all  our  churches  to  bring 
to  bear  upon  the  needs  of  our  nation  and  of  the  world 
the. full  measure  of  their  Christian  conviction  and  devo¬ 
tion,  with  no  compromise  of  our  denominational  trusts 
and  distinctive  principles  and  no  confusion  of  our  indi¬ 
vidual  responsibilities.  This  Movement  makes  possible 
our  unreserved  cooperation  in  an  effort  where  each  body 
gives  itself  to  the  common  service  and,  in  accord  with  our 
Lord’s  promise,  finds  itself  again  enriched  in  the  common 
life  and  strengthened  with  new  power. 


Findings  Committee  of  the  Cleveland  Conference 


Emory  W.  1 
\V.  B.  Anderson 
A.  E.  Armstrong 
Frank  L.  Brown 
Helen  ,B.  Calder 
William  E.  Chalmers 
W.  E.  Gardner 
Ida  Harrison 
James  R.  Joy 
G.  M.  Matthews 
Charles  E.  Miller 

E.  F. 


Hr  NT.  Chairman 

C.  S.  Nash 
W.  F.  Oldham 
W.  C.  Pearce 
Frank  M.  Sheldon 
James  S.  Snowden 
Robert  E  .Speer 
Warren  S.  Stone 
Luther  E.  Todd 
Fennell  P.  Turner 
Charles  L.  W  pi  i  t  if. 

W ill i s 


Constituency  of  the  Cleveland  Conference 

The  following  analysis  of  the  constituency  of  the  Con¬ 
ference  indicates  its  representative  character: 


Reformed  Presbyterian  . 

1 

Friends  . 

.  8 

United  Evangelical  . 

1 

United  Presbyterian  . 

Q 

Salvation  Army  . 

1 

Lutheran  . 

9 

Free  Baptist  . 

2 

Reformed  in  America . 

.  10 

Mennonite  . 

2 

Protestant  Episcopal  . 

.  1 1 

Evangelical  Synod  . 

2 

United  Brethren  .  .  .  .  : . 

.  17 

Moravian  . ...  . 

2 

Reformed  in  U.  S.  A.. 

.  28 

(  hristian  . . . 

o 

Presbyterian  in  \J.  S.  A. . 

.  42 

Seventh  Day  Baptist  . 

3 

Congregational  . 

.  47 

Methodist  Protestant  . 

3 

Baptist  . 

.  51 

Church  of  the  Brethren . 

3 

Disciples  . 

.  76 

Free  Methodists  . 

3 

Methodist  Episcopal  (North). 

.  131 

Southern  Presbyterian  . 

4 

Denominations  not  stated.... 

.  8 

Evangelical  Association  . 

6 

Methodist  Episcopal  (South).. 

7 

Total  . 

.490 

28 

Personnel  of  Delegates 


Secretaries  and  Officers  and  Members  of  Home  Missions  Boards . 55 

Secretaries  and  Officers  and  Members  of  Foreign  Missions  Boards  .  .  .  .60 

Secretaries  and  Officers  and  Members  of  all  other  Boards  . 72 

Secretaries  and  Officers  and  Members  of  Women’s  Boards  . 76 

College  Presidents  and  Professors  . 71 

Editors  . :  •  •  •. . 28 

Secretaries  and  Officers,  Interdenominational  Organizations . 75 

General  Church  Officers  (Bishops,  Secretaries,  etc.,) . 22 

Pastors,  other  relations  not  stated . 23 

Missionaries  .  8 


The  Interchurch 
Movement  Defined 

The  preceding’  pages  disclose  the  general  conditions  from 
which  the  idea  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement 
sprang.  We  have  seen  how  it  came  into  being  and  we 
have  seen  the  instantaneous  response  which  it  evoked  in 
Christian  hearts.  Let  us  now  inquire  in  a  little  more 
detail  what  it  is. 


It  is  often  helpful  in  such  an  inquiry  to  decide  first  what 

it  is  not. 

What  It  Is  Not 

It  is  not  a  union  of  churches. 

It  is  not  a  combination  of  ecclesiastical  bodies. 

It  does  not  propose  the  merging  of  any  organization  with 
any  other. 

It  does  not  ask  any  denominational  organization  to  give 
up  any  of  its  distinctive  features. 

It  does  not  invite  or  want  any  organization  to  surrender 
a  single  one  of  its  rights. 


29 


N.  B. — Speakers  should  be  particularly  careful  to  be 
scrupulously  accurate  in  these  matters.  Hence  in  speak¬ 
ing  of  the  aims  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  the 
use  of  the  word  “union”  will  usually  be  inaccurate.  What 
the  Movement  aims  at  is  not  union  of  but  cooperation 
among  denominational  and  interdenominational  organiza¬ 
tions. 


What  It  Is 

We  all  know  the  fine  old  hymn  that  begins: 

“We  are  not  divided, 

All  one  body  we — ” 

The  sentiment  is  admirable,  and  it  is  true  in  so  far  as 
the  spirit  of  union  is  concerned.  But  what  of  our  prac¬ 
tise? 

The  fact  is  that  the  Christian  churches  have  not  only 
been  ecclesiastically  divided,  but  they  have  often  been  so 
thoroughly  divided  that  they  have  not  been  able  to  cooper¬ 
ate  along  lines  of  effort  that  are  common  to  all. 

In  the  field  of  foreign  missions  the  churches  have  shown 
that  at  least  some  cooperation,  especially  in  the  matter  of 
gathering  statistical  data,  is  both  desirable  and  possible. 
A  leading  missionary  from  China  said,  at  the  Interboard 
Conference  in  Cleveland,  May  1,  “Nine-tenths  of  the  in¬ 
formation  gathered  in  China  is  common  to  all  denomina¬ 
tions.” 


30 


It  is  the  purpose  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  to 
demonstrate  that  the  policy  of  cooperation  which  has  been 
applied  successfully  to  foreign  missions  can  be  applied 
with  equal  or  even  greater  success  to  other  fields  of 
Christian  endeavor. 

Common  Tasks  of 
The  Churches 

Look  at  some  of  the  ordinary  activities  of  the  individual 
churches.  All  of  them  do  a  great  many  things  of  the 
same  character.  Here  are  a  few: 

1.  They  hold  meetings  and  conventions  for  the  deepen¬ 
ing  of  the  spiritual  life  and  the  development  of  in¬ 
terest  in  the  varied  activities  of  the  Christian 
church. 

2.  They  issue  literature  and  conduct  publicity  cam¬ 
paigns. 

3.  They  raise  money  through  special  drives. 

4.  They  make  surveys  of  the  fields  at  home  and  abroad 
and  outline  budgets  of  expenditures. 

It  does  not  need  an  efficiency  expert  to  see  that  here  is  a 
waste  of  effort,  both  spiritual  and  material.  The 
churches  could  cooperate  in  all  these  matters. 

Many  earnest  men  have  asked  the  question :  Why  cannot 
these  organizations  group  themselves  for  mutual  benefit, 
study  one  another’s  plans  and  literature  and  actually 
join  together  in  doing  some  of  these  things.  Why  for 
instance,  should  they  not  conduct  a  united  financial  and 
publicity  campaign? 


31 


The  Interchurch  World  Movement  answers  these  ques¬ 
tions  with  a  determined  affirmative.  The  churches  can 
do  these  various  things  together,  and  the  function  of  the 
Movement  is  to  provide,  as  it  were,  a  clearing  house  of 
church  activities,  a  center  from  which  cooperation  may 
be  organized. 

Recapitulation 

Let  us  close  and  recapitulate  this  section  with  two  defii- 
nitions  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement,  a  positive 
and  a  negative,  both  of  which  are  necessary  for  an 
understanding  of  the  Movement: 

Positive 

It  is  a  cooperative  effort  of  the  missionary,  educa¬ 
tional  and  other  benevolent  agencies  of  the  evangel¬ 
ical  churches  of  the  United  States  and  Canada  to 
secure  the  necessary  resources  of  men  and  money 
and  power  required  for  their  tasks.  It  is  an  instru¬ 
mentality  of  education,  of  cooperation  and  coordina¬ 
tion  of  administrative  agencies,  which  it  is  designed 
to  serve,  not  to  supplant. 

Negative 

It  is  not  an  ecclesiastical  movement  nor  an  effort 
at  organic  church  union.  It  will  not  disturb  the 
autonomy  or  interfere  with  the  administration  of 
any  church  or  board.  Neither  will  it  undertake  to 
administer  or  expend  funds  for  any  purpose  beyond 
its  administrative  expenses.  The  plan  of  the  Move¬ 
ment  is  not  to  duplicate  or  conflict  with  other  de- 


32 


nominational  agencies.  It  does  not  assume  responsi¬ 
bility  or  authority  in  questions  of  church  or  mis¬ 
sionary  policy,  recognizing  that  these  belong  to  the 
cooperating  agencies  and  organizations. 


Organization 

It  will  be  the  aim  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement 
to  demonstrate  that  spiritual  purpose  and  business 
efficiency  can  go  together.  It  is  with  this  end  in  view 
that  the  organization  of  the  Movement  has  been  built  up. 
It  is  still  incomplete;  it  will  remain  incomplete  in  the 
sense  that  it  must  be  continually  growing  if  it  is  to 
serve  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  intended.  But  the 
foundations  are  laid,  as  we  believe,  well  and  solidly, 
stout  enough  to  support  the  ever-growing  edifice  which 
must  be  raised  upon  them. 


The  General  Committee 

The  direction  of  the  work  is  in  the  hands  of  the  General 
Committee,  consisting,  as  we  saw  under  the  section  on 
“Origins/’  of  about  150  members,  men  and  women, 
nominated  or  suggested  by  the  various  cooperating 
boards  and  societies.  This  committee  exercises  general 
supervision  of  the  work  and  its  correlation  with  all  the 
affiliated  organizations  and  works  in  close  harmony  with 
other  national  religious  bodies,  using  existing  agencies 
to  the  fullest  possible  degree.  It  has  already  met  twice, 
once  in  New  York  and  again  in  Cleveland,  and  it  will 
meet  again  before  the  close  of  the  year. 


33 


Executive  Committee 


The  active  supervision  of  the  work  of  the  Movement  is 
vested  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive  Committee,  which 
determines  all  questions  of  general  operation.  This  com¬ 
mittee  is  constituted  as  follows: 


John  R.  Mott,  Chairman 

William  Hiram  Foulkes,  Vice-Chairman 

William  B.  Millar,  Secretary 


F.  W.  Ayer 
Frank  L.  Brown 
VV.  B.  Beauchamp 
Mrs.  F.  S.  Bennett 
A.  E.  Cory 
Mrs.  W.  H.  Farmer 
D.  D.  Forsyth 
George  M.  Fowles 
Fred  P.  Haggard 


Hubert  C.  Herring 
Margaret  E.  Hodge 
Robert  L.  Kelly 
John  A.  Marquis 
Charles  H.  Pratt 
Fred  B.  Smith 
James  M.  Speers 
Warren  S.  Stone 
David  W.  Teachout 


General  and  Associate  Secretaries 

Responsibility  for  planning  and  carrying  into  effect  the 
details  of  the  work  rests  with  the  general  secretary 
and  the  associate  general  secretaries.  Each  of  the  latter 
is  directly  responsible  for  the  work  of  some  particular 
department  and  shares  with  the  rest  responsibility  for 
the  work  of  the  organization  as  a  whole.  The  names  are 
as  follows: 

General  secretary,  S.  Earl  Taylor.  Associate  general 
secretaries,  Abram  E.  Cory;  Miss  Mabel  Cratty;  William 
E.  Doughty;  Mrs.  H.  H.  Farmer;  Fred  B.  Fisher; 
William  Hiram  Foulkes;  Fred  P.  Haggard;  W.  B. 
Millar ;  J.  Campbell  White. 


34 


Canadian  Council 

A  Canadian  Council  works  in  close  cooperation  with  the 
Movement  in  the  United  States.  To  this  council  are 
referred  all  questions  involved  in  the  Movement  that  are 
peculiar  to  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 

Departments 

Details  of  the  work  of  the  various  departments  belong 
properly  in  Part  II.  of  this  handbook,  and  we  shall  find 
more  to  say  about  them  when  we  deal  with  the  task  that 
is  before  the  Interchurch  World  Movement.  It  is,  how¬ 
ever.  appropriate  here  to  complete  our  summary  of  the 
main  outlines  of  the  organization  by  indicating  the 
principles  on  which  it  is  subdivided. 

Groups 

The  entire  organization  is  divided  into  four  main  groups. 
Each  group  will  comprise  several  departments  or  major 
divisions  of  the  Movement.  The  organization  plan  pre¬ 
sented  herewith  is  tentative  only  and  it  is  expected  that 
modifications  will  be  found  necessary  as  the  work  prog¬ 
resses. 

/.  Objectives  Group 

To  formulate  and  specify  the  needs  of  the  missionary 
enterprise.  It  will  include  the  following: 

Home  Missions  Survey  Division. 

American  Educational  Survey  Division. 
American  Religious  Educational  Survey  Division. 


35 


American  Ministerial  Support  and  Relief  Survey 
Division. 

American  Hospitals  and  Benevolent  Institutional 
Survey  Division. 

American  Industrial  Relations  Survey  Division. 
Foreign  Survey  Division. 

Survey  Editorial  Division. 

Survey  Research  Division. 

Survey  Statistical  Division. 

II.  Educational  Group 

To  formulate  and  furnish  the  educational  means  for 
the  accomplishment  of  the  objectives  of  the  Move¬ 
ment.  It  will  include  the  following: 

Stewardship  Department. 

Life  Work  Department. 

Institutional  Education  Department. 

Missionary  Education  Department. 

Religious  Education  Department. 

Industrial  Relations  Department. 

Music  Department. 

Graphics  Department. 

Literature  Department. 

III.  Promulgation  Group 

To  coordinate,  supervise  and  direct  the  presentation 
of  the  objectives  and  educational  means  of  the 
Movement.  To  cooperate  with  the  church  in  the  pro¬ 
mulgation  of  the  objectives  and  means.  It  will  in¬ 
clude  the  following: 


36 


Field  Department. 

Publicity  Department. 

Periodical  Department. 

IV.  Administrative  Group 

To  conduct  the  business  and  service  functions  neces¬ 
sary  and  helpful  to  the  conduct  of  the  Movement.  It 
will  include  the  following: 

Service  Department. 

Treasury  Department. 

Conservation  Department. 

Industrial  Department. 

Detailed  statements  regarding  the  several  departments 
appear  on  page  4  2,  et  seq. 

Relations  With  Other  Bodies 

General  Principles 

The  general  principles  governing  the  relations  of  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement  with  other  bodies  and 
organizations,  denominational,  undenominational  and 
interdenominational,  are  set  forth  under  the  section 
“What  the  Movement  Is”.  That  is,  the  aim  of  the  Inter¬ 
church  World  Movement  is  always  cooperation,  not  union. 
In  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Twenty,  as  adopted 
(see  page  18),  occurs  the  following: 

Interests  Included 

While  primarily  a  home  and  foreign  missionary 
movement,  the  Movement  is  to  be  broad  enough  to 


37 


cover  all  those  interests  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  outside  of  the  local  church  budget,  which 
are  naturally  related  to  the  missionary  enterprise 
through  national  agencies — denominational  or  inter¬ 
denominational.” 

Obviously  this  is  a  broad  general  statement  requiring 
careful  interpretation’  and  detailed  consideration  in  its 
application,  a  consideration  which  it  was  not  possible  to 
give  at  the  time  the  Movement  was  organized  if  indeed 
it  is  now  possible  to  determine  absolutely  just  where  the 
line  should  be  drawn  between  those  organizations  which 
will  cooperate  and  those  which  will  not. 

The  general  thought  of  the  organizers  of  the  Movement 
was  doubtless  that  all  missionary,  educational  and  philan- 
thropical  agencies  of  an  evangelical  character  which  are 
directly  or  indirectly  related  to  the  churches  would  be 
included  both  in  the  survey  and  in  any  financial  campaign 
which  might  follow. 

The  question  has  been  raised  as  to  the  inclusion  of  non- 
denominational  and  independent  agencies,  namely  those 
not  directly  or  organically  related  to  the  denominations. 
In  this  class  are  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Bible  Society,  the  Mission  to  Lepers  and  many  other 
union,  independent  and  semi-independent  institutions  and 
agencies,  many  of  which  have  already  expressed  a  desire 
to  cooperate  with  the  Interchurch  Movement. 

It  has  finally  been  decided  to  invite  all  institutions  and 
agencies,  which  would  naturally  be  included  under  the 
foregoing,  to  participate  in  the  survey  in  order  that  all 

38 


the  facts  of  an  interchurch  survey  may  be  secured.  As 
to  whether  any  or  all  of  these  shall  ultimately  cooperate 
with  the  Movement  and  participate  in  its  financial  cam¬ 
paign  will  be  left  for  future  consideration  by  the  Move¬ 
ment  and  for  correspondence  with  the  institutions  and 
agencies  concerned. 

Lists  of  these  agencies  have  been  prepared  and  cor¬ 
respondence  with  reference  to  the  surveys  is  now  being 
conducted  with  them. 

Two  organizations  of  their  own  initiative  have,  however, 
decided  that  their  particular  usefulness  will  be  increased 
by  still  closer  cooperation  with  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement,  namely: 

The  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement 

This  Movement  has  actively  supported  the  Interchurch 
World  Movement,  generously  putting  at  the  disposal  of 
the  latter  its  resources  in  personnel  and  cooperating  in 
the  closest  possible  manner,  while  at  the  same  time  con¬ 
tinuing  its  work  as  an  independent  organization.  The 
magazine  of  the  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement,  “Men 
and  Missions,”  which  has  completed  a  decade  of  valuable 
service,  will  be  merged  with  a  magazine  that  is  to  be 
issued  under  the  auspices  of  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement. 

The  Missionary  Education  Movement 

This  Movement  has  been  doing  valuable  work  since  1902 
in  cooperation  with  the  home  and  foreign  mission  boards. 
Its  activies  have  been  along  the  following  lines: 

39 


1.  Publication  of  mission  study  textbooks  and  other  inter¬ 
denominational  literature. 

2.  Publication  of  a  monthly  magazine  for  boys  and  girls, 
entitled  “Everyland.” 

3.  Conducting  seven  summer  conferences,  in  various  parts 
of  the  United  States1,  for  the  training  of  leaders  in 
missionary  educational  work  in  the  local  churches. 

4.  Conducting  institutes  and  city-wide  campaigns  on 
missionary  education. 

When  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  was  organized, 
it  was  felt  that  the  work  of  the  Missionary  Education 
Movement  would  of  necessity  be  duplicated  in  the  new 
organization.  Accordingly  the  Board  of  Managers  of  the 
Missionary  Education  Movement  voted  that  the  work 
now  being  done  by  the  Missionary  Education  Movement 
should  be  continued  under  the  direction  and  as  a  part 
of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement.  The  summer  con¬ 
ferences  this  year  were  promoted  and  conducted  under 
the  direction  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement,  which 
also  has  the  advantage  of  the  cooperation  of  the  capable 
staff  of  the  Missionary  Education  Movement  in  continu¬ 
ing  the  other  activities  of  that  body  pending  a  more 
complete  organization. 

The  Federal  Council  of  Churches 

Two  questions  that  have  frequently  been  asked  and  are 
likely  to  be  asked  again  are: 

What  is  the  relation  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement 
to  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches? 

Why  cannot  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches  do  exactly 
what  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  is  attempting 
to  do? 


40 


To  both  questions  the  answers  are  extremely  simple. 

1  The  first  question  may  be  answered  in  the  words 
used  by  Dr.  S.  Earl  Taylor,  presiding  at  the  Cleveland 
Conference.  Dr.  Taylor  said:  “No  group  of  men  of  the 
whole  body  of  Christian  life  in  this  country  has  been 
more  sympathetic  and  more  helpful  than  the  officers  and 
leaders  of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches  as  we  have 
proceeded  with  this  work.” 

2.  The  answer  to  the  second  question  is  as  follows:  The 
Federal  Council  of  Churches  derives  its  authority  from 
the  judicatories  of  the  various  churches.  It  could  not 
undertake  a  movement  of  this  kind  without  the  express 
authority  of  those  judicatories.  Hence,  it  would  be  im¬ 
possible  to  launch  and  promote  the  Movement  through 
the  Federal  Council  in  its  present  situation  without  wait¬ 
ing  long  enough  to  have  the  constituent  bodies  all  act 
upon  the  proposal  through  their  judicatories.  Some  of 
these  judicatories  only  meet  at  intervals  of  years.  In 
other  words,  if  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches  attempted 
to  do  what  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  is  doing  it 
would  be  exceeding  its  constitutional  authority. 

Epitome 

Only  as  the  Movement  develops  and  the  various  cooper¬ 
ating  bodies  discover  their  own  objectives  and  determine 
their  own  programs  will  it  be  possible  for  them  to  relate 
themselves  to  all  others  through  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement.  The  Movement  will  affiliate  definitely  with 
the  Canadian  Movement,  which  is  organized  and  well 
under  way.  Already  Commissions  have  visited  us  from 
the  British  Isles,  where  a  lively  interest  has  been  mani¬ 
fested  in  the  Movement,  and  from  other  parts  of  the 
British  Empire. 


41 


PART  II. 

The  Facts  and  the  Means 

AS  its  name  implies,  the  scope  of  the  Interchurch 
World  Movement  is  coextensive  with  the  world. 
Broadly  speaking,  its  task  is  twofold:  (1)  to  dis¬ 
cover  the  facts,  and  (2)  to  indicate  the  means  of  deal¬ 
ing  with  them. 


I.  The  Facts 

Obviously  the  immediate  task  that  confronts  the  Inter¬ 
church  World  Movement  is  the  discovery  of  the  facts  of 
the  present  situation.  Most  of  its  energies  for  the  present 
will,  therefore,  be  given  to  this  task. 


By  “the  facts”  we  mean  all  of  the  facts  relating  to  the 
religious  life  of  the  world. 


To  acquire  this  information  an  elaborate  plan  of  “sur¬ 
veys”  has  been  worked  out  and  has  started  to  operate. 
This  will  be  the  main  concern  of  the  Movement  until 
the  beginning  of  November.  Up  to  that  date  all  other 
activities  of  the  organization  will  be  subordinate  to 
the  interests  of  the  surveys. 


42 


The  Survey  Department 

Numerous  surveys  of  the  home  and  foreign  fields  have 
been  made  before;  but  these  have  been,  by  the  nature  of 
the  case,  mainly  denominational.  The  information  and  ex¬ 
perience  of  many  of  these  existing  surveys  will  be  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement.  In  particu¬ 
lar,  the  men  who  will  be  responsible  for  conducting  its 
survey  are  men  who  have  had  a  wide  experience  in  this 

line  of  work. 

The  survey  undertaken  by  the  Movement  will  differ  from 
any  that  have  gone  before  in  that  it  will  include  the 
whole  body  of  facts  relating  to  religious  life  in  the  areas 
surveyed. 

Hence  the  basis  of  the  survey  will  be  geographical  not 
ecclesiastical.  For  a  statement  of  the  scope  of  the  survey 
see  p.  46,  et  seq. 

When  the  rescources  and  needs  of  every  area  have  been 
discovered,  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  will  be  in 
a  position  to  set  forth  clearly  and  in  due  proportion  the 
whole  task  of  the  evangelical  churches  of  North  America. 
The  survey  is  thus  the  foundation  of  the  whole  Move¬ 
ment.  (See,  Relations  with  Other  Bodies,  page  37.) 


Why  Have  The  Survey? 

Previous  surveys  have  brought  some  interesting  facts  to 
light.  For  instance: 


43 


1.  In  upper  New  York  state  is  a  sparsely  settled  section, 
with  3,000  population,  that  has  37  churches.  Half  of 
them  are  boarded  up,  idle.  One  town  of  200  population 
in  the  section  has  both  Presbyterian  and  Methodist 
churches.  The  survey  revealed  the  facts,  and  one  de¬ 
nomination  withdrew  to  move  to  fields  where  the  same 
effort  would  get  greater  results. 

2.  A  frank  minister  up  in  Maine,  where  two  churches 
were  in  a  town  needing  only  one,  prayed  that  the  Lord 
would  use  “holy  coercion”  to  get  his  denomination’s 
board  members  to  do  their  duty  and  withdraw  from  the 
town  to  some  other  place. 

3.  In  California  the  survey  has  revealed  that  one  town 
with  a  population  of  4,000  has  not  a  single  church.  A 
nearby  town  of  1,600  has  fourteen  evangelical  churches, 
attendance  ranging  from  125  down  to  25.  “Blank”  Church 
gets  $1,500  a  year  missionary  support.  All  but  one  get 
some  missionary  support.  One  has  been  promised  $500 
a  year,  “if  it  is  needed  to  maintain  the  denomination  in 
the  town.” 

4.  In  Ohio  the  survey  has  revealed  one  section  contain¬ 
ing  no  church  within  a  radius  of  25  miles  of  a  given 
point. 

5.  In  Brown  county,  Indiana,  there  are  twelve  churches 
that  have  occasional  services,  alternate  Sundays  or 
worse,  but  not  one  minister  lives  in  the  county,  which 
therefore  is  without  the  kind  of  personal  and  organiza¬ 
tional  service  required. 


44 


6.  In  the  Mohammedan  world  there  are  vast  lorces 
which  are  as  yet  almost  untouched  by  Christianity. 
The  sixty  million  Moslems  of  India  are  the  most 
neglected  of  all  the  religious  classes  of  that  great 
empire.  More  than  thirty  million  Mohammedans  in 
China  are  unreached  by  the  gospel.  The  Mohammedan 
movement  which  is  sweeping  northward  through  the 
Caucasus  and  surging  into  southern  Russia,  has  already 
claimed  more  than  a  million  Russians  for  the  Moslem 
faith.  There  is  thus  presented  to  the  Christian  forces 
of  the  world  one  of  the  greatest  challenges,  and  the 
modern  church  cannot  afford  to  neglect  this  increasingly 
insistent  opportunity. 

7.  The  last  world  survey  is  based  on  1915  statistics  and 
in  many  fields  the  conditions  have  greatly  changed 
since  that  time.  The  work  of  the  European  Societies  in 
many  cases  has  been  greatly  interfered  with,  while  Ameri¬ 
can  and  all  other  missions  have  experienced  unprece¬ 
dented  conditions.  To  illustrate  the  changes,  German 
missions  in  India  and  Africa  have  been  relinquished  or 
transferred,  leaving  larger  responsibility  to  other  mis¬ 
sions;  and  in  the  Belgian  Congo,  7  new  societies  have 
begun  work  and  30  new  mission  stations  have  been 
opened  within  the  last  eight  years. 

In  a  very  large  number  of  cases  it  is  only  necessary  to 
point  out  the  facts  with  sufficient  clarity  to  get  the 
desired  remedy  applied. 

You  cannot  cure  a  disease  till  you  have  found  out  what 
it  is.  Diagnosis  first;  then  cure. 


45 


Organization 

For  purposes  of  organization  the  Survey  Department 
has  been  divided  for  the  present  in  eleven  divisions, 
as  follows: 

1.  Home  Missions  Division. 

2.  American  Educational  Division. 

3.  American  Religious  Educational  Division. 

4.  American  Ministerial  Support  and  Relief  Division. 

5.  American  Hospitals  and  Benevolent  Institutional 

Division. 

6.  American  Industrial  Relations  Division. 

7.  Foreign  Division. 

8.  Editorial  Division. 

9.  Research  Division. 

10.  Statistical  Division. 

Reason  for  this  Classification 

The  above  classification  has  been  made  in  the  interests  of 
efficiency,  as  the  most  convenient  form  of  organization. 
It  is,  however,  elastic.  Divisions  may  be  added,  or  exist¬ 
ing  divisions  may  be  amalgamated  as  expediency  dictates. 
The  foreign  survey  includes  all  phases  of  the  work : 
missionary,  educational,  medical,  industrial,  etc.,  and  will 
cover  all  territory  except  continental  United  States, 
Hawaii  and  the  West  Indies. 

Home  Missions  Division 

General  Principles 

The  following  principles  have  been  laid  down  for  the 
guidance  of  those  making  the  home  survey: 

46 


1.  The  Interchurch  World  Movement  survey  in  its  con¬ 
tent  is  to  include  all  community  relationships,  studied, 
however,  from  a  religious  standpoint. 

2.  The  survey  is  to  be  the  kind  of  a  study  on  which 
a  program  can  be  based,  a  program  capable  of  being 
budgeted  in  terms  of  men  and  money. 

3.  In  every  community  all  the  churches  and  all  religious 
and  social  agencies,  and  not  merely  so-called  “missions”, 
are  to  be  studied. 

4.  We  must  have  the  sort  of  study  that  will  furnish 
promotion  and  publicity  material  for  the  campaign. 

5.  The  process  of  the  survey  must  be  democratically 
associated  with  the  forces  on  any  given  field,  and  under 
such  forms  of  organization  as  the  local  community  may 
suggest. 

6.  The  survey  is  to  show  the  implication  of  all  com¬ 
munity  needs,  problems  and  situations  to  the  personal, 
spiritual  life  of  the  individual. 


Method 

The  Home  Missions  Division  naturally  requires  a  some¬ 
what  elaborate  organization;  but  the  general  method  to 
be  pursued  may  be  stated  in  fairly  simple  terms: 

In  charge  of  each  major  section  of  the  survey  is  a 
supervisor,  a  man  skilled  in  the  work. 


47 


The  supervisor  works  in  conjunction  with  a  council,  con¬ 
sisting  probably  of  some  fifteen  or  more  members  repre¬ 
senting  different  denominations  and  different  interests. 

Particular  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  above  point.  Frank 
and  cordial  cooperation  between  the  supervisors  and  the 
local  councils  is  a  vital  element  in  the  survey.  The  same 
principle  of  local  cooperation  applies  to  the  smallest  as 
to  the  largest  unit. 

The  data  from  each  local  unit  are  collated  by  means  of 
standardized  maps,  locating  each  church;  by  studies  of 
population,  showing  racial  and  other  tendencies  and  by 
a  questionnaire  on  each  local  church. 

For  the  compiling  of  the  questionnaires  special  emphasis 
is  laid  on  the  necessity  of  securing  the  assistance  of  the 
strongest  leaders  of  the  churches,  both  lay  and  clerical. 

Besides  some  special  surveys  the  work  of  the  Home  Mis¬ 
sions  Division  embraces  two  great  surveys:  the  city 
survey  and  the  rural  survey. 

The  City  Survey 

This  survey,  in  its  turn  is  subdivided,  but  we  are  con¬ 
cerned  here  only  with  broad  principles  and  can  ignore  the 
subdivisions.  Note,  however,  the  following: 

1.  A  new  departure  is  made  in  treating  New  York  city 
as  a  metropolitan  area,  and  thereby  including  under  one 
survey  the  city  and  its  residential  suburbs,  with  a  total 
population  of  some  ten  millions  of  persons. * 


48 


2.  For  purposes  of  the  survey,  cities  are  grouped 
together  according  to  propinquity,  state  boundaries  being 
ignored  if  necessary. 

Principles 

The  aim  of  the  city  survey  is  to  discover  and  develop 
an  adequate  program  for  the  evangelical  churches  of  the 
cities  of  America.  It  will  aim  also  to  furnish  local  de¬ 
nominational  agencies  carrying  on  mission  or  church  ex¬ 
tension  work  in  the  city  with  the  data  necessary  for  a 
comprehensive  city  program. 

Scope 

In  its  content  it  will  include  all  community  relationships, 
studied,  however,  from  a  religious  standpoint.  It  will 
be  the  kind  of  a  study  on  which  a  program  can  be 
based,  a  program  capable  of  being  budgeted  in  terms  of 
buildings,  equipment  and  maintenance,  with  a  specifica¬ 
tion  of  the  leadership  required.  In  every  comumnity,  all 
the  churches  and  all  religious  and  social  agencies  will  be 
taken  into  account.  The  survey  will  be  carried  out  demo¬ 
cratically  in  cooperation  with  the  forces  on  any  given 
field. 

Method 

An  Interchurch  Survey  Committee  will  be  set  up  and  for 
the  larger  and  metropolitan  center  a  director  of  the  sur¬ 
vey  will  be  appointed.  The  city  will  then  be  districted 
for  the  purposes  of  cooperative  study.  Questionnaires 
will  be  furnished  for  a  study  of  the  district  and  of  the 
local  churches,  including  building  and  equipment,  mem- 


49 


bership,  organization,  staff,  maintenance,  etc.,  and  of  the 
church  as  it  functions  in  worship,  religious  education  and 
community  service. 

The  Rural  Survey 

The  rural  survey  is  not  to  be  academic.  It  is  to  be  for 
practical  use.  It  is  to  be  a  study  of  every  rural  church 
and  of  each  church  also  in  its  comunity  relationships. 
The  end  of  the. survey  is  to  be  a  working  program  for 
each  rural  church  and  for  the  country  churches  of  every 
community,  county  or  state.  This  program,  therefore, 
will  be  budgeted  in  terms  of  men,  method  and  money ; 
men  to  carry  through  the  program  and  money  to  pay 
for  carrying  out  those  methods  which  the  survey  shows 
should  be  adopted.  This  may  mean  a  new  building  with 
modern  equipment  or  simply  an  automobile  to  assist  the 
minister  in  effective  pastoral  visitation. 

Three  principles  will  animate  the  survey 

1.  To  occupy  all  unoccupied  territory.  The  amount  of 
unchurched  territory  in  America  is  amazing ;  whole 
counties  even  in  the  East  are  without  church  ministra¬ 
tions.  In  one  community  in  West  Virginia  there  are 
25,000  people  with  only  one  minister.  In  hundreds  of 
counties  no  clergyman  is  able  to  give  full  time  to  any  one 
charge.  Tens  of  thousands  of  townships  are  without  a 
resident  pastor. 

2.  To  bring  to  an  efficient  basis  all  approved  projects 
now  below  par.  The  efficient  basis  for  any  given  church 
must  be  determined  by  the  results  of  the  survey  itself. 
The  approving  of  any  project  will  he  done  democratically 
by  the  local  and  state  survey  QQUL’cils  as  will  be  ex- 

50; 


plained  later.  There  are  many  churches  doing  good 
work  and  having  great  possibilities  which  could  be  ol 
far  larger  service  with  assistance  of  some  sort.  These 
are  the  type  of  churches  included  in  this  classification. 

3  To  make  the  most  economical  use  possible  of  men  and 
money  in  existing  fields.  We  touch  here  the  problem  of 
over-churched  communities.  The  survey  is  not  likely  to 
suggest  unattached  federated  churches.  However,  m  a 
case  like  that  presented  by  the  western  community 
already  quoted,  of  1,600  population  served  by  fourteen 
churches,  thirteen  of  which  receive  home  mission  aid, 
the  survey  should  seek  to  determine  which  denominations 
should  remain  in  the  community  and  which  should  with¬ 
draw  to  be  compensated  somewhere  else  in  another  situa¬ 
tion  that  needs  adjustment.  The  survey  should  determine 
this  because  the  time  is  past  when  Americans  will  give 
money  to  support  thirteen  related  kinds  of  Christianity 
in  a  community  which  can  itself  sustain  but  one  or  two. 

Organization 

The  organization  for  this  survey  heads  up  in  each  state 
in  a  rural  survey  supervisor  with  whom  are  associated 
state  denominational  executives  and  others  forming  a 
state  survey  council.  The  county  is  the  unit  for  the 
survey  and  in  each  county  there  are  one  or  more  leaders 
who  similarly  have  a  county  council  with  which  to  work. 
The  council  must  approve  the  program  for  its  territory 
which  is  formulated  by  the  survey  workers.  This  pro¬ 
gram  is  then  to  be  passed  upon  by  the  state  council  and 
after  any  adjustments  that  may  be  necessary  are  made, 
it  is  to  be  built  into  the  state  program  and  this  in  turn 
is  passed  on  to  the  national  office. 

51 


American  Educational  Division 

1.  This  survey  is  concerned  with  universities  (state  and 
independent) ,  colleges,  theological  seminaries  and  second¬ 
ary  schools. 

2.  The  fundamental  idea  of  the  survey  is  to  discover 
what  institutions  are  equipped  for  preparing  Christian 
leaders. 

3.  Other  similar  surveys  have  been  made  (e.g.  by  U.  S. 
Government,  the  Carnegie  Foundation,  the  Sage  Founda¬ 
tion,  and  various  church  boards).  The  information  in¬ 
cluded  in  these  surveys  is  being  collated  and  will  be 
available  to  assist  in  the  present  survey.  But  no  such 
survey  has  even  attempted  to  gather  all  the  facts  which 
are  necessary  to  a  complete  and  convincing  demonstration 
and  definition  of  the  need. 

4.  The  survey,  when  completed,  will  bring  together  all 
the  accessible  facts  concerning  the  history,  organization, 
constituency,  fruitage,  assets,  income  and  expenditure  of 
more  than  a  thousand  educational  institutions. 

5.  The  survey  will  attempt  to  show  what  we  have,  what 
we  ought  to  have  and  how  to  get  it  in  the  field  of 
education. 

American  Religious  Educational  Division 

In  its  system  of  public  schools  the  state  has  the  machin¬ 
ery  by  which  it  hands  on  from  generation  to  generation 
the  intellectual,  social  and  industrial  achievements  of 
the  race. 


52 


The  next  chapter  to  be  written  into  the  history  of  democ¬ 
racy  must  record  the  development  of  a  piece  of  machinery 
by  which  the  moral  and  spiritual  achievements  of  the 
race  may  be  transmitted  from  generation  to  generation. 
It  is  the  task  of  religious  education  to  spiritualize  the 

nation’s  ideals. 

The  present  survey  will  include  religious  education  in  the 
home,  in  the  local  church  and  in  the  community,  The 
territory  included  in  the  survey  is  continental  United 
States,  Alaska.  Hawaii  and  the  West  Indies. 

The  purposes  of  the  survey  may  be  summarized  as 
follows : 

1.  To  secure  a  definite  body  of  facts  upon  which  to 
base  a  program  of  religious  education  and  with  which 
to  persuade  the  people  of  the  country  of  the  wisdom  of 
such  program. 

2.  To  establish  standards  and  forms  as  a  basis  of 
measuring  religious  educational  methods,  processes  and 
institutions. 

3.  To  lay  the  foundation  for  a  uniform  system  of  educa¬ 
tional-  statistics  and  measurements  in  the  field  of  moral 
and  religious  education. 

4.  To  establish  scientific  methods  of  approach  to  the 
problems  of  moral  and  religious  education  for  the  guid¬ 
ance  of  local  leaders,  churches  and  communities  in  the 
creation  of  programs  and  budgets. 

5.  The  interpretation  and  evaluation  of  the  data  gathered 
in  terms  of  the  standards  adopted. 

53 


To  achieve  these  purposes,  the  survey  must  cover  the 
following  principal  items:  physical  equipment;  child  ac¬ 
counting,  (i.e..  a  system  of  records  showing  the  spiritual 
development  of  children)  ;  curriculum  or  program  of 
activities;  organization  and  administration;  supervision; 
teachers  and  professional  leadership;  finance. 

In  addition  to  the  general  information  secured  on  the 
above  items,  many  special  surveys  will  be  conducted  in¬ 
cluding  existing  institutions  of  moral  and  religious  educa¬ 
tion;  the  study  of  typical  centers;  the  study  of  movements 
and  special  programs;  studies  of  special  groups;  studies 
in  religious  educational  finance,  and  a  number  of  studies 
designated  to  show  present-day  tendencies  in  moral  and 
religious  education. 

American  Ministerial  Support 
And  Relief  Division 

The  title  of  this  division  explains  itself.  The  objects  of 
the  survey  will  be: 

1.  To  ascertain  the  present  status  of  pay  and  pensions 
for  ministers. 

2.  To  indicate  what  measures  are  necessary  to  remedy 
the  deficiencies  which  certainly  will  be  discovered  in  this 
department  of  Christian  life. 

American  Hospitals  and  Benevolent 
Institutional  Division 

The  chief  object  of  this  division  is  to  aid  the  benevolent 
institutions  concerned  to  provide  help  for  the  helpless. 
The  prime  question  is  “What  ought  to  be  done?”  To  get 
the  answer  we  have  to  consider  the  following  items: 

54 


The  work  already  done;  the  actual  ministries  of  institu¬ 
tions;  the  demands  upon  them;  their  needs  of  physical 
equipment;  their  possibilities  for  enlarged  service. 

The  scope  of  the  survey  falls  naturally  under  three  heads : 

Health 

Our  denominational  and  interdenominational  hospitals 
must  be  made  strong  to  fulfill  the  three-fold  dynamics  of 
Christian  efficiency:  teaching,  preaching,  healing.  Besides 
their  duty  of  nursing  the  sick  and  afflicted  back  to 
health,  they  have  the  further  duty  of  insisting  that  the 
baby  has  a  right  to  be  born  perfect;  that  the  child  has  a 
right  to  healthy  parents,  a  happy  home  and  a  better 
world  to  live  in;  that  the  foreigner  has  a  right  to  be 
shown  the  Christ  through  physical  as  well  as  spiritual 
ministries. 

To  carry  out  these  principles,  the  following  program  has 
been  suggested: 

To  enable  the  hospitals  to  be  more  efficient. 

To  establish  hospitals  for  the  aged  infirm. 

To  aid  tubercular  hospitals  in  favorable  climes. 

To  provide  sanitaria  for  healing  and  rest. 

To  provide  hospitals  for  incurables. 

To  assist  new  hospitals  in  needy  centers. 

To  provide  clinics  for  children’s  welfare. 

To  conduct  dispensaries  and  clinics  for  the  treat¬ 
ment  of  venereal  diseases. 

The  realization  of  such  a  program  will  include  centralized, 
specialized  and  standardized  hospitals,  and  the  discovery 
of  reinforcements  for  home  and  foreign  mission  hospitals. 

55 


Conservation 

Hundreds  of  young  lives  have  been  wasted  through 
neglect  and  disease.  The  child  welfare  organizations 
should  be  strengthened  to  combat  this  waste.  Preventive 
philanthropy  should  be  recognized  as  of  greater  necessity 
than  remedial  philanthropy. 

Children’s  homes  and  agencies  for  the  care  of  little 
orphans  and  foundlings  must  be  provide^!  and  well 
equipped,  and  an  increased  interest  taken  in  unfortunate 
children.  We  believe  there  is  no  work  of  greater  im¬ 
portance  or  one  that  yields  better  results. 

Preservation 

Our  duty  towards  those  who  have  worked  long  and  faith¬ 
fully  in  the  service  of  Christianity  cannot  be  ignored. 
There  are  many  such  who  have  had  little  opportunity  to 
lay  aside  provision  for  their  old  age.  Under  this  head, 
therefore,  comes  the  provision  of  homes  for  the  aged, 
homes  for  returned  missionaries,  and  homes  for  retired 
ministers. 

American  Industrial  Relations  Division 

This  division  is  at  present  only  in  the  preliminary  stages 
of  organization.  It  is  intended,  however,  to  form  one  of 
the  most  important  items  in  the  survey  program,  destined, 
as  it  is,  to  embrace  the  whole  field  of  industrial  problems. 
Such  subjects  as  housing,  labor  disputes,  the  relations 
between  capital  and  labor,  profit-sharing,  etc.,  will  come 
within  its  province.  In  particular  it  will  deal  with  prob¬ 
lems  of  Americanization  of  immigrant  peoples.  Itepre- 


56 


sentatives  from  this  division  have  gone  to  Europe  to 
study  at  first  hand  industrial  problems  in  England, 
France,  Holland  and  other  European  industrial  centers. 
Further  information  with  reference  to  the  Industrial 
Relations  Division  will  be  available  about  January  1, 
1920. 

Foreign  Division 

This  is  naturally  among  the  most  important,  as  it  is 
among  the  most  extensive,  tasks  of  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement.  For  its  success  it  is  essential  that  the  Move¬ 
ment  should  enjoy  the  close  cooperation  of  various  mis¬ 
sionary  agencies.  With  them  it  hopes  to  formulate  a 
complete  statement  of  the  situation  and  need  revealed  by 
the  survey  and  to  draw  up  a  statement  of  program  that 
shall  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  cooperating  agencies. 

Scope  and  Plans 

The  scope  and  plans  of  the  Foreign  Division  may  be 
formulated  as  follows: 

1.  The  Foreign  Survey  Division  will  make  an  entirely 
new  study  of  the  present  situation  and  needs  in  the  work 
of  American  evangelical  agencies  in  all  foreign  mission 
fields. 

2.  This  study  will  exhibit  the  geographical,  racial, 
linguistic,  literary,  religious,  social,  educational,  political 
and  post-bellum  conditions  of  each  field  as  they  present 
problems  directly  affecting  the  present  status  and  future 
advance  of  the  American  evangelical  churches  abroad. 


57 


3.  The  survey  will  endeavor,  in  particular,  to  bring  out 
the  following  points: 

(1)  The  location  of  all  evangelical  mission  stations, 
to  show  the  adequacy  or  inadequacy  of  Christian 
occupation. 

(2)  The  situation  and  need  with  regard  to  evangelis¬ 
tic,  educational  and  medical  missions. 

(3)  The  state  of,  and  program  for  the  distribution  of 
the  Bible  and  other  Christian  literature. 

(4)  The  extent  and  need  of  missionary  initiative  in 
social  and  industrial  spheres. 

4.  The  results  of  the  survey  are  expected  to  reveal  to 
the  American  churches  the  present  and  ever-growing  op¬ 
portunity  for  expansion  and  greater  efficiency  in  all 
aspects  of  their  mission  work  in  foreign  lands.  This 
opportunity  is  due  to: 

(1)  The  unprecedented  receptivity  to  the  gospel 
among  non-Christian  peoples. 

(2)  The  spread  of  the  democratic  spirit  throughout 
the  civilized  world. 

(3)  The  responsibility  that  rests  upon  America  in 
consequence  of  the  position  she  has  assumed  in 
the  polity  of  nations. 

(4)  The  urgency  of  the  need  in  the  period  of  re¬ 
construction. 

5.  As  an  outcome  of  this  survey  the  evangelical  churches 
of  North  America  will  face  the  challenge  of  an  immediate 
responsibility  in  the  Christianization  of  the  world. 

58 


6.  Every  evangelical  missionary  agency  in  North  Amer¬ 
ica  will  be  assisted  by  the  Foreign  Survey  Division  by 
having  at  its  disposal  all  the  information  which  this 
division  is  collecting  by  the  following  means: 

(1)  Specialized  study  of  each  of  the  great  mission 
fields,  supervized  by  a  man  already  conversant 
with  the  problems  of  his  field  and  with  the  work 
of  all  the  evangelical  bodies  within  that  area: 
that  is,  the  services  of  a  specialist  are  available 
to  anyone  studying  Malaysia,  Ceylon,  or  any 
other  field. 

(2)  Research,  intended  to  ascertain  both  the  mis¬ 
sionary  and  the  general  or  non-missionary  facts 
with  respect  to  the  foreign  mission  fields. 

(3)  Interviews  with  returned  missionaries. 

(4)  Special  deputations  to  some  of  the  foreign  fields. 

(5)  Questionnaires  to  the  fields,  to  specialists  and 
to  the  missionary  societies. 

In  other  words,  this  division  will  serve  as  a  clearinghouse 
for  all  available  data,  missionary  and  non-missionary, 
which  will  be  placed  at  the  full  disposal  of  the  missionary 
agencies  for  the  formulation  of  their  individual  programs. 

Editorial,  Research  and 
Statistical  Divisions 

These  are,  of  course,  office  divisions,  designed  to  serve 
all  the  other  divisions  of  the  Survey  Department.  On 
the  Statistical  Division  will  rest  the  immense  responsi¬ 
bility  of  tabulating  the  facts  ascertained  by  the  surveys 
and  preparing  them  for  the  clearest  possible  presentation. 

59 


II.  The  Means 


Broadly  speaking,  this  category  includes  all  the  rest  of 
the  activities  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement.  The 
facts  having  been  ascertained  through  the  surveys,  what 
are  the  means  to  be  employed  in  dealing  with  them? 

They  are  four  in  number. 

I.  A  united  budget. 

II.  A  united  campaign  of  publicity  and  education. 

III.  A  united  financial  drive. 

IV.  A  united  program  of  work  on  the  mission  field 
and  in  the  local  church  at  home. 

A  United  Budget 

On  the  basis  of  the  world  survey  it  is  proposed  that  a 
single  joint  budget  be  made  which  shall  outline  the 
approximate  responsibility  of  the  evangelical  churches  of 
North  America  for  the  world’s  welfare.  No  estimate  of 
the  probable  amount  of  this  budget  will  be  possible  until 
after  the  surveys  are  completed. 

Points  on  the  Budget 

1.  Every  item  of  the  budget  must  approve  itself  to  the 
judgment  of  the  several  missionary  or  benevolent  boards, 
so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  work  of  each  board. 

2.  It  will  have  the  approval  of  a  strong  interdenomina¬ 
tional  committee,  aided  by  experts  in  the  various  fields 
covered;  this  committee  to  review  and  harmonize  the 
details. 


60 


3.  While  the  budget  will  be  for  a  single  year,  it  will 
take  account  of  the  needs  of  a  five-year  period. 

4.  This  proposal  will  in  no  way  displace  or  interfere 
with  the  autonomy  or  responsibility  for  administration 
of  the  cooperating  agencies. 

5.  All  funds  should  be  sent,  so  far  as  possible,  direct  to 
the  treasurers  of  such  agencies  from  their  natural  con¬ 
stituencies. 

6.  The  full  share  of  each  cooperating  body  in  lives  and 
money  will  be  set  forth  in  the  budget,  as  well  as  the 
grand  total. 

7.  Provision  must  be  made  for  receiving  and  distributing 
any  funds  which  may  be  contributed  without  being  sent 
through  denominational  treasurers.  Therefore,  a  central 
treasury  will  be  established  to  which  funds  given  for 
the  united  budget,  but  contributed  through  ordinary 
church  channels,  may  be  reported  by  the  cooperating 
agencies.  Through  this  central  treasury,  also,  donors  who 
so  elect  may  contribute  directly  to  the  united  budget. 

8.  The  functions  of  the  central  treasury  will  be  to 
assemble  and  report  the  financial  facts  connected  with 
the  campaign ;  to  disburse  funds  for  the  common  ex¬ 
pense  of  the  campaign,  and  to  serve  as  a  clearinghouse 
for  the  cooperating  agencies  in  order  that  each  may 
receive  its  pro  rata  share  of  the  funds  obtained,  as 
agreed  on  in  advance  according  to  its  percentage  in  the 
united  budget. 


61 


Finances  of  the  Interchurch 
World  Movement 

1.  The  movement  will  be  financed  out  of  the  funds 
obtained,  not  by  direct  assessment  upon  participating 
bodies. 

2.  The  cost  of  the  campaign  will  depend  upon  the  size  of 
the  budget.  Before  the  war  it  would  probably  have  been 
reckoned  at  about  2%  per  cent,  of  the  total.  Now  it  will 
probably  be  nearer  3  Y2  per  cent. 

3.  To  meet  the  immediate  expenses  of  the  Interchurch 
World  Movement  credits  will  be  established  by  the  co¬ 
operating  boards  of  the  churches.  They  will  not  advance 
money,  but  will  provide  credit  on  which  the  Movement 
can  borrow.  Several  boards  have  already  taken  action 
underwriting  credit  for  the  Movement. 


A  United  Campaign  of 
Publicity  and  Education 

The  Field  Campaign 

A  field  campaign  will  be  undertaken  to  bring  before  the 
churches  a  knowledge  of  the  needs  of  the  community, 
the  nation  and  the  world,  as  revealed  by  the  surveys;  to 
arouse  the  church  to  a  realization  of  the  urgency  of 
cooperative  effort  in  meeting  these  needs,  and  to  inspire 
and  complete  an  organization  of  the  Christian  forces  of 
North  America  competent  to  undertake  an  adequate  world 
program. 


\ 


62 


This  campaign  of  education  will  be  designed  to  reach 
every  one  of  the  200,000  churches  on  the  North  American 
continent  and  every  member  of  the  twenty-five  millions 
in  the  evangelical  communions,  as  well  as  those  other 
twenty-five  millions  who.  without  being  church  members, 
are  adherents  of  the  evangelical  faith. 

The  responsibility  for  conducting  this  campaign  will 
rest  with  the  Field  Department,  the  functions  of  which 
should  be  clearly  understood. 

The  Field  Department 

Relations  With  Other  Departments 

1.  The  Field  Department  is  charged  with  the  building 
and  training  of  field  organizations,  through  which  the 
entire  Movement  will  function  in  the  presentation  of  its 
message. 

2.  The  Field  Department  is,  as  it  were,  the  hub  of  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement  organization  on  the  field. 

*  It  is  the  department  of  coordination. 

3.  It  does  not  initiate,  but  it  carries  out  the  policies 
initiated  by  other  departments,  and  these  policies  cannot 
be  carried  out  except  through  the  Field  Department. 

4.  Thus  we  meet  a  fundamental  fact  in  the  organiza¬ 
tion,  on  which  its  efficient  working  depends:  Every 
member  of  the  organization  owes  a  dual  responsibility. 
He  is  responsible  first  to  his  own  department,  and 
secondly  to  the  Field  Department. 


63 


5.  This  means  that  no  individual  and  no  department 
can  initiate  a  policy  and  then  proceed  to  act  upon  it 
regardless  of  the  Field  Department.  The  machinery 
of  promulgation  is  controlled  by  the  Field  Department. 
To  ignore  the  authorized  machinery  would  be  to  create 
endless  confusion  and  throw  the  whole  machine  out  of 
gear. 

Organization 

1.  For  administrative  purposes  the  entire  country  is 
divided  into  ten  districts.  In  charge  of  each  is  a 
divisional  director,  appointed  by  and  responsible  to  the 
Field  Department.  These  divisional  organizations  are 
purely  for  purposes  of  decentralization.  Each  of  the 
divisional  offices  is  designed  to  serve  as  a  miniature 
Field  Department  for  its  district.  That  is,  it  is  estab¬ 
lished  for  the  service  and  convenience  of  all  units  of 
the  organization  within  the  district.  Conversely,  all 
units  must  function  through  the  Field  Department. 

2.  The  divisional  directors  are  responsible  for  the  build¬ 
ing  of  the  state  organizations. 

3.  The  state  organization  consists  of  the  state  secretary 
and  the  state  committee  associated  with  him  in  an 
advisory  capacity. 

4.  The  utmost  importance  is  attached  to  the  state  com¬ 
mittee.  It  should  be  representative,  so  far  as  possible,  of 
the  various  church  officials:  state  secretaries,  district 
superintendents,  local  and  state  federations,  etc.,  in  order 
that  the  full  power  of  denominational  and  interdenomina. 


64 


tional  organizations  may  be  utilized.  The  state  com-, 
mittee,  in  conjunction  with  the  state  secretary,  will  serve 
to  coordinate  all  the  activities  of  the  Movement  within 
the  state. 

5.  The  state  secretaries  are  responsible  to  the  divisional 
directors.  Their  main  functions  are: 

(1)  The  setting  up  of  a  state  organization  which 
shall  have  units,  so  far  as  needed,  corresponding 
with  those  in  the  central  office. 

(2)  The  conduct  of  all  the  business  arrangements  of 
the  State  office:  i.e.,  all  departments  will  arrange 
for  office  space,  secretarial  help,  stationery,  mail¬ 
ing,  folders,  etc.,  through  the  state  secretary. 

6.  County  committees  should  be  formed  for  every  county. 
These  are  of  vital  importance,  for  it  is  through  them  that 
the  most  personal  and  intimate  contact  will  be  established. 
The  basis  for  these  committees  should  be  denominational 
representations,  which  should  have  the  sanction,  whenever 

•  possible,  of  the  denominational  bodies  operating  in  any 
county.  The  approach  to  the  local  church  should  be  made, 
when  possible,  first  through  the  denominational  machinery. 
The  county  committees  should,  however,  be  so  organized 
that  they  should  touch  the  entire  evangelical  constituency 
of  the  community,  as  well  as  the  denominational  constitu¬ 
ency. 

General  Publicity 

A  campaign  of  general  publicity  will  be  undertaken  to 
which  the  Publicity,  Literature,  Graphic,  Statistical  and 
other  departments  will  all  contribute.  The  chief  respon- 

65 


sibility  for  this  campaign  of  information  through  the 
distribution  of  pamphlets,  etc.,  and  through  the  secular 
and  religious  press  will  rest  with  the  Literature  Depart¬ 
ment  and  the  Publicity  Department. 

Literature  Department 

The  principal  function  of  this  department  is  to  create  the 
literature  put  out  by  the  Movement  and  to  promote  its 
sale  and  distribution.  The  following  points  should  be 
noted : 

1.  All  requests  for  the  publication  of  printed  matter, 
whether  of  small  or  large  dimensions,  should  be  made  to 
the  Literature  Department. 

2.  Manuscripts  for  all  printed  matter  to  be  issued  over 
the  imprint  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  must  in 
due  time  and  in  proper  form  be  submitted  to  the  Litera¬ 
ture  Department. 

3.  Other  departments  in  the  Movement  will  not  print  or 
publish  any  book,  pamphlet,  leaflet,  map,  chart  or  other 
piece  of  printing,  but  will  in  all  cases  obtain  what  is 
needed  through  the  agency  of  the  Literature  Department. 

4.  This  department  is  designed  to  serve  other  depart¬ 
ments  as  fully  as  possible  and  can  only  do  so  through  the 
freest  exchange  of  ideas  with  other  departments. 

Publicity  Department 

The  functions  of  this  department  are  to  institute,  prepare, 
edit  and  release  all  publicity  matter  for  the  secular  and 

66 


religious  press.  A  staff  of  highly  skilled  writers  is 
attached  to  the  Publicity  Department  whose  business  it 
is  to  keep  the  public  informed  as  to  the  status  and 
progress  of  the  Movement. 

Officials  of  the  Movement  in  the  field  should  note  the  fol¬ 
lowing  points: 

1  with  a  view  to  carrying  forward  the  publicity  work 
of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  according  to  a  unified 
plan,  the  initiating  of  all  publicity  for  newspapers  or  the 
religious  press  should  be  left  entirely  to  the  Publicity  De 
partment. 

2.  Suggestions  and  ideas  from  every  source  are  at  all 
times  welcomed.  If  any  worker  in  the  organization  feels 
that  there  is  special  need  for  some  particular  piece  of 
publicity,  he  should  write  a  recommendation  direct  to  the 
Publicity  Department  giving  his  suggestions  in  full. 

3  The  reason  for  the  above  is  that  the  Publicity  Depart,- 
ment  has  adopted  a  uniform  method  of  designating  and 
describing  the  Interchurch  World  Movement.  Unless  all 
publicity  passes  through  the  Department,  misleading  im¬ 
pressions  or  disproportionate  emphasis  may  uninten¬ 
tionally  be  given. 

4.  At  the  same  time  members  of  the  organization  should 
show  every  possible  courtesy  to  the  press,  secular  and 
religious,  when  information  is  sought  concerning  the  Inter¬ 
church  World  Movement,  and  when  the  initiative  is  from 
the  press,  every  effort  should  be  made  to  supply  it  with 
satisfying  information.  Except,  however,  in  cases  of 

67 


great  urgency  or  purely  local  significance,  such  requests 
should  be  referred  to  the  Publicity  Department. 

4 

5.  Members  of  the  organization  in  the  field  should  culti¬ 
vate  friendly  relations  with  the  press  of  their  respective 
districts  so  that  they  can  tell  what  kind  of  stories  are 
likely  to  interest  the  papers.  They  should  be  constantly 
on  the  lookout  for  information  or  suggestions  that  may 
be  useful  to  the  Publicity  Department. 

6.  Particular  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  legitimacy  of  the 
methods  of  publicity  employed.  Nothing  is  so  likely  to 
defeat  its  own  ends  as  an  attempt  to  “put  something 
over”  on  a  newspaper  editor.  All  such  attempts  will  be 
discountenanced.  The  stories  that  will  appear  in  the 
press  will  be  printed  because  their  news  value  or  general 
interest  warrants  their  appearance.  Other  matter  will 
appear  and  be  paid  for  as  advertising,  and  there  will  be 
no  attempt  to  give  to  matter  that  is  paid  for  as  adver¬ 
tising  the  appearance  of  a  news  story. 

Periodical  Department 

This  department  will  edit  and  publish  all  the  periodicals 
of  the  Movement,  except  the  Bulletin,  which  will  be 
issued  by  the  Publicity  Department.  “Everyland”  be¬ 
comes  a  publication  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement. 

A  United  Financial  Drive 

During  a  given  number  of  days  at  some  period  yet  to  be 
determined  it  is  proposed  that  the  50,000,000  people  who 
form  the  constituency  of  the  evangelical  churches  of 
America  be  asked,  community  by  community,  to  under- 

68 


write  the  united  budget  for  the  year  ahead,  payment  of 
pledges  to  be  made  week  by  week  through  customary 
church  channels. 


Points  to  Notice 

1.  If  any  denomination  has  obtained  all  the  money  it 
needs  for  the  next  five  years  it  can  enter  on  the  other 
phases  of  the  Movement’s  program.  It  is  left  to  the 
churches  to  define  the  plan  by  which  they  will  come  in 
on  the  financial  side. 

2.  When  the  needs  are  known  it  will  be  feasible  to  adjust 
the  financial  program  to  the  facts.  For  instance,  if  the 
needs  of  the  educational  part  of  the  work,  including  en¬ 
dowment,  should  prove  too  overwhelming  for  a  single 
year,  it  is  perfectly  easy  to  divide  that  total  by  two  or 
three  or  five  and  spread  it  over  a  two,  three  or  five-year 
period. 

3.  The  churches,  on  account  of  their  divisions,  have 
hitherto  been  at  a  disadvantage  in  approaching  the  city. 
Christian  associations,  with  their  universal  appeal,  have 
not  been  thus  handicapped.  The  present  plan  of  inter¬ 
church  cooperation  opens  up  those  city  areas  where  phil¬ 
anthropy  on  a  large  scale  is  to  be  found.  (See,  Relations 
With  Other  Bodies,  p.  37.) 

A  Few  Figures 

When  you  look  at  the  budgets  of  the  individual  churches  it 
seems  as  if  the  figures  of  a  united  budget  were  likely  to 
prove  something  rather  stupendous.  Millions  of  dollars 

69 


always  look  rather  overpowering  for  those  of  us  who  are 
accustomed  to  think  in  much  more  humble  sums.  These 
figures  don't  look  nearly  so  tremendous  if  you  divide  them 
by  figures  of  population  or  of  church  membership. 

For  instance:  Take  the  figures  of  that  magnificent 
Centenary  drive  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  It  produced  more 
than  167  millions  of  dollars,  a  truly  splendid  gift.  The 
membership  of  these  two  churches  is  a  little  more  than 
6  millions.  That  works  out  at  a  gift  of  $28  a  person  for 
every  member  of  the  two  leading  branches  of  Methodism. 
The  giving  is  spread  over  a  period  of  five  years;  so  it 
means  that  every  member  engages  to  give  $5.60  a  year  to 
the  home  and  foreign  missionary  work  of  the  church, 
which  is  not  quite  11  cents  a  week,  which  is  a  little  less 
than  two  cents  a  day — the  price  of  a  newspaper. 

When  you  reduce  the  millions  of  benevolence  to  their  low¬ 
est  terms  they  do  not  look  so  formidable. 

What  would  be  the  result  if  the  entire  evangelical  con¬ 
stituency  of  America  gave  two  cents  a  day  for  five  years 
to  the  united  budget  of  the  churches? 

That  would  mean  that  $500,000  would  be  coming  in  every 
day — $3,500,000  a  week,  $182,000,000  in  the  year.  The 
total  for  the  five-year  period  would  be  $910,000,000 — 
nearly  a  billion  dollars  contributed  by  church  members 
alone,  taking  no  account  of  those  25,000,000  persons  who 
are  adherents  of  various  denominations  without  being 
regular  church  members. 


70 


Look  for  a  moment  at  some  other  figures,  also  for  prac¬ 
tically  a  five-year  period.  Four  hundred  and  fifty  billions 
of  dollars  is  the  estimated  cost  to  the  world  of  the  war. 
Little  comment  is  needed.  Interest  charges  on  this  sum 
at  4  per  cent,  for  one  year  exceed  the  total  foreign  mis¬ 
sion  gifts  of  America  for  the  year  1918. 

No  wonder  the  commander  of  the  British  fleet  who  re¬ 
ceived  the  surrender  of  the  German  fleet  said:  “If  half  of 
the  zeal  and  passion,  half  of  the  outpouring  of  life  and 
treasure  or  organization  and  efficiency  that  the  state 
has  put  into  this  world  war  could  be  thrown  into  the 
cause  of  the  kingdom  and  of  the  eternal  verities,  the 
world  would  soon  be  won.” 

A  United  Program  of  Work 

This  applies  both  to  the  mission  fields  and  to  the  local 
churches  at  home. 

It  is  proposed  that  this  plan  shall  carry  the  steadily 
growing  cooperation  of  recent  years  in  the  mission  field 
on  to  the  point  of  the  most  complete  coordination  which 
the  conditions  of  the  separate  organizations  permit.  Funds 
secured  will  be  expended  with  detailed  regard  to  the 
requirements  of  fraternal  cooperation. 

The  objectives  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  can 
be  realized  only  as  each  local  church  will  assume  its  full 
responsibility  in  cooperation  with  all  other  churches.  It 
will  be  necessary,  therefore,  for  each  church  to  carry 
through  a  program  of  education,  intercession,  steward¬ 
ship,  life  work  and  community  service,  the  last  to  be 
treated  from  the  broadest  possible  point  of  view. 

71 


To  further  this  united  program  of  work,  the  following 
phases  of  religious  development  have  been  undertaken  or 
are  in  process  of  being  organized  by  the  Interchurch 
World  Movement:  Aids  to  Missions;  Spiritual  Resources; 
Stewardship;  Life-work. 


Aids  to  Missions 

We  noted  in  Part.  I.  the  close  relationship  that  exists 
between  the  Interchurch  World  Movement  and  the  Lay¬ 
men’s  Missionary  Movement,  and  it  would  be  impossible  to 
give  a  better  idea  of  the  missionary  activities  undertaken 
and  contemplated  by  the  former  than  may  be  given  by 
presenting  a  brief  account  of  the  accomplishments  of  the 
latter. 

On  a  November  afternoon  thirteen  years  ago,  seventy- 
five  laymen  gathered  in  the  Fifth  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church  of  New  York  City  to  consider  ways  of  arousing 
the  laity  to  an  active  interest  in  missionary  work. 

Today  the  movement  launched  by  those  seventy-five  men 
is  bearing  fruit  in  vastly  increased  contributions  to  for¬ 
eign  missions;  in  the  growth  of  Christian  stewardship; 
in  the  large  number  of  laymen  who  are  giving  as  much 
as  fifty  per  cent  of  their  time  to  missionary  activity,  and 
in  a  new  spirit  of  cooperation  and  church  harmony. 

The  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement  has  helped  to  in¬ 
crease  the  contributions  of  the  evangelical  churches  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada  from  a  little  more  than  eight 
million  dollars  a  year  to  twenty-one  million  dollars.  It 
has  organized  and  conducted  more  than  three  thousand 

72 


missionary  gatherings  for  men,  with  an  aggregate  attend¬ 
ance  of  more  than  a  million.  It  circulates  a  vast  amount 
of  missionary  literature,  including  until  recently,  “Men 
and  Missions, ”  a  monthly  magazine.  It  has  conducted 
one  national  campaign  in  Canada  and  two  in  the  United 
States,  with  conventions  in  the  leading  cities. 

Among  its  most  striking  accomplishments  has  been  the 
success  of  its  campaign  for  widespread  missionary  educa¬ 
tion  and  for  the  systematizing  of  missionary  finance. 
Thousands  of  laymen  who  used  to  give  but  one  contribu¬ 
tion  a  year  are  now  making  a  regular  weekly  donation. 
Above  all,  the  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement  has  taught 
the  evangelical  denominations  that  they  have  many  im¬ 
portant  problems  and  interests  in  common  despite  church 
boundary  lines ,  and  that  it  is  possible  for  them  to  work 
together  in  complete  harmony. 

Through  the  work  of  this  organization,  laymen  through¬ 
out  the  United  States  and  Canada  are  prepared  to  appre¬ 
ciate  the  great  plans  of  the  Interchurch  World  Movement. 
Men  and  women  whose  vision  formerly  extended  no 
farther  than  the  county  line  have  learned  to  look  upon 
distant  continents  as  next-door  neighbors.  In  the  Lay¬ 
men’s  Missionary  Movement,  which  has  become  part  of 
the  greater  campaign,  and  in  carrying  on  the  work  of  the 
Missionary  Education  Movement  (See,  page  39),  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement  will  find  strong  and  tried 
weapons  for  its  campaign  of  evangelization. 

Spiritual  Resources 

In  order  to  call  out  and  develope  the  spiritual  energies  of 

73 


the  churches  the  following  methods  among  others  will  be 
employed. 

Special  Group  of  Intercessors 

A  group  of  leaders  who  are  especially  interested  in  the 
Interchurch  World  Movement  and  who  agree  to  make  the 
Movement  and  its  work  a  special  subject  of  prayer  .is 
being  organized.  Special  requests  for  intercession  will  be 
sent  to  these  members  from  time  to  time  as  occasion  may 
require. 

The  Field  Campaign 

Plans  will  be  made  to  have  addresses  on  prayer,  careful 
attention  given  to  devotional  hours,  discussion  of  methods 
of  promoting  prayer  and  special  periods  of  intercession  at 
conferences,  conventions  and  other  meetings  of  the  Inter¬ 
church  World  Movement. 

Literature 

The  best  books  and  pamphlets  on  prayer  and  other  de¬ 
votional  topics  which  are  now  in  print  will  be  circulated. 
Other  materials  will  be  created  as  the  Movement  prog¬ 
resses. 

Publicity 

Through  the  Publicity  Department  special  articles  on 
prayer  will  be  circulated,  and  special  materials  designed 
to  call  out  the  spiritual  energies  of  the  church  will  be 
published  regularly  in  the  Interchurch  Bulletin  or  in  a 
special  bulletin,  as  may  seem  best  to  the  Movement,  and 
through  the  church  press. 


74 


Family  Worship 

A  definite  campaign  to  increase  the  prestige  of  family 
worship  and  the  preparation  and  circulation  of  special 
helps. 

The  Mid-week  Prayer  Service 

Plans  and  helps  will  be  prepared  for  making  the  mid¬ 
week  prayer  service  more  effective. 

Special  Prayer  Periods 

Special  emphasis  on  prayer  and  definite  suggestions  for 
intercession  along  the  line  of  the  activities  of  the  Inter¬ 
church  Movement  in  connection  with  such  events  as,  the 
Week  of  Prayer,  the  Day  of  Prayer  for  Students,  Passion 
Week,  preceding  and  during  the  financial  drive,  and  at 
other  times  of  peculiar  need  or  fitness. 

Educational  Campaign 

It  is  planned  to  work  out  in  connection  with  the  Life- 
work  Department  and  the  Stewardship  Department  an 
educational  program  for  a  series  of  Sundays;  one  of  these 
Sundays  will  be  given  to  emphasis  on  prayer.  Plans  will 
be  worked  out  and  materials  furnished  for  making  this 
educational  period  effective. 

Stewardship 

The  program  for  the  Stewardship  Department  has  not  yet 
been  worked  out  completely.  It  is,  therefore,  premature  to 
enter  into  details  concerning  its  plans.  Broadly  speaking, 
its  aim  will  be  to  aid  in  the  promotion  of  the  principles 


75 


of  stewardship,  the  relation  of  wealth,  property,  posses¬ 
sions  and  life  itself  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  Christian 
recognizes  the  stewardship  of  privilege,  of  opportunity,  of 
experience,  of  education,  of  talent,  of  mental  and  spiritual 
gifts,  in  a  word,  the  whole  inclusive  stewardship  of 
personality.  All  these  gifts  and  qualities  constitute  a 
debt,  the  payment  of  which  is  owed  both  to  the  Creator 
and  to  humanity. 

Life-Work 

The  Life-work  Department  of  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement  is  in  process  of  organization.  It  will  have  the 
following  objective: 

Cooperation  with  the  recruiting  and  training  agencies  of 
all  the  churches  in  the  discovery,  enlistment  and  adequate 
training  of  the  employed  workers  needed  by  all  the 
evangelical  churches  of  North  America  in  their  total 
work,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

Functions  of  the  Department 

1.  To  strengthen  the  recruiting  departments  of  all 
churches. 

2.  To  promote  such  Bible  study  and  missionary  education 
among  all  the  young  people  of  all  the  churches  as  will 
make  them  familiar  with  the  many  and  great  opportuni¬ 
ties  for  Christian  life-work,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  and 
also  with  the  spiritual  principles  upon  which  God’s  plan 
for  each  human  life  can  be  founded. 

3.  To  strive  to  develop  many  trained  vocation  counsellors 
who  will  be  able  to  help  young  people  to  discover  their 


76 


own  latent  resources  and  the  life-work  for  which  they 
have  the  highest  natural  qualifications. 

4.  To  see  that  the  needs  and  opportunities  for  Christian 
life-work  are  strongly  presented  before,  during,  and  after 
the  usual  college  age  to  all  young  people  so  far  as 
possible. 

5.  To  develop  any  new  lines  of  work  within  the  church 
that  may  be  needed  in  order  to  make  the  church  moie 
efficient. 

6.  To  improve  if  possible  the  preparation  of  Christian 
workers  for  various  Christian  callings. 

7.  To  cultivate  a  stronger  and  more  pervasive  Christian 
life  in  the  home,  as  the  seed-plot  out  of  which  nearly  all 
of  the  best  church  leadership  is  developed. 

8.  To  create  and  circulate  a  literature  adapted  to  these 
ends. 


77 


APPENDIX 

List  of  Literature  of  the  Interchurch  World 
Movement  of  North  America 

The  following  is  a  list  of  literature  of  the  Movement 
available  for  distribution  on  or  about  September  first  and 
thereafter. 

No. 

4  The  Interchurch  World  Movement — Its  Origin,  Pur¬ 
poses  and  Plans 

11  What  It  Is 

21  Findings  of  the  Cleveland  Interboard  Conference, 
April  30-May  1,  6  page  folder,  envolope  size. 

35  Helping  together  through  Prayer  (card) 

36  Homeward  Way  Prayer  (Nos.  35  and  36.  especially  t 
intended  for  conference  gatherings) 

46  The  Fellowship  of  Intercession  (registration  card  for 
intercessors) 

51  Intercession — by  William  E.  Doughty 

32  pages,  envelope  size.  Price,  see  below 

52  Life  of  Prayer — by  William  E.  Doughty 
32  pages,  envelope  size.  Price,  see  below 

78 


53  Place  of  Prayer  in  God’s  Plan  of  World  Conquest — 
by  James  M.  Campbell 
24  pages,  6x9.  Price,  see  below 

55  The  Meaning  of  Intercession — by  Henry  W.  Frost 
12  pages,  envelope  size.  Price,  see  below 

56  Prayer  Gets  Things  Done — by  S.  D.  Gordon 
12  pages,  envelope  size.  Price,  see  below 

• 

57  The  Highest  Service — by  W.  E.  Doughty 
12  pages,  envelope  size.  Price,  see  below 

58  New  Ventures  of  Faith — by  Gilbert  Beaver 
72  pages,  6x9.  Price,  see  below 

59  Intercessors:  The  Primary  Need — by  John  R.  Mott 
24  pages,  envelope  size.  Price,  see  below 

60  Prayer  and  Missions — by  Robert  E.  Speer 
24  pages,  envelope  size.  Price,  see  below 

67  A  National  Rural  Church  Survey 
4  page  folder,  envelope  size 

71  What  Your  Church  Can  Do  to  Americanize  America 
6  page  folder,  4x7%.  Price,  see  below 

72  Pastor’s  Conference — Pittsburgh 
48  pages,  6x9.  Price,  see  below 

73  County  Survey  Manual 

5x6  (prepared  especially  for  those  participating  in 
the  rural  survey) 


79 


76  The  Church  in  the  City — Report  of  the  Cleveland 
Conference  of  June  10-12 
32  pages,  6x9.  Price,  see  below 

119  The  Handbook 
80  pages,  5x6. 


Prices 

% 

Some  of  the  literature  issued  by  the  Interchurch  Move¬ 
ment  is  for  the  technical  information  and  help  of  all  the 
coworkers.  For  such  publications  there  is  no  charge. 
But  much  of  the  best  literature,  presenting  the  outstand¬ 
ing  messages  of  the  Movement,  and  vital  contributions  to 
the  spiritual  development  of  the  churches,  is  here  made 
available  at  a  nominal  charge  designed  merely  to  meet 
partially  the  expense  of  publication.  The  prices  are  as 
follows : 

Nos.  51,  52,  55,  56,  57,  59,  60:  5  cents  each,  50  cents  per 
dozen,  $2.75  per  hundred. 

Nos.  53,  58,  72,  76:  10  cents  each,  75  cents  per  dozen, 

$6.00  per  hundred. 

No.  71:  2  cents  each,  20  cents  per  dozen,  $1.50  per 

hundred. 


No.  119.  I.  10.  Sept.  1919. 


80 


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No.  119.  I.  10,  Sept,  1919. 


